Rock Steady
by milkyourpigs
Summary: Santana swore she'd never even think about Sebastian Smythe again...but then he turns up when she needs help the most with an ingenious idea to get rid of Rachel's psychotic boyfriend once and for all. (Dark themes. Escort!Sebastian. New York trio)
1. Prologue

_Gah I got a little bored of my other fic.. if any interesting ideas come to me I might continue it but it was a bit generic. This is really short cuz its just an idea that I thought I'd try out since I'm kinda feeling the darker direction Glee's taking-any future chapters will be longer. Get past the first few paragraphs and it becomes my own work (rather than based off a scene).  
_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Prologue**

Santana sat on the bed in the darkened room, her heart pounding in her chest and sweat clamming up her hands. With every footfall her heart beat that little bit faster until there was the definite beep of a card being swiped and the door admitting him into the room. A sliver of light fell across the floor and she took the second to compose herself.

"Evening Vicky," he said in a deep velvet-soft voice, one he must reserve for encounters such as these. The instant he flipped the light on she turned her head to face him, watching his confident hands unbuttoning his blazer slowly begin to fumble as recognition hit him. Silence fell as Brody's smug features fell into a look of alarm. "Santana, how did you—?"

"—I told you, this is what I do," she got up from the bed, heart rate calming now that everything was going to plan.

"You can't tell Rachel, please," his previously seductive voice now an unattractive beg. "I'm not proud of this, I promise."

"Save it, I think there's someone more important you should convince tonight," she smiled at him but it didn't meet her eyes, where the glint of triumph tormented him. She looked over his shoulder, mentally counting the three seconds she'd arranged with Finn.

At five seconds, she could feel Brody's eyes boring into her, no longer anxious. "He's not coming, Santana."

She looked at him again, a leering smile creeping onto his lips. "What?"

"You think I didn't know what you were up to? One of my friends is taking care of Finn right this moment," his dark, alluring making her insides itch and scream with irritation. "But I decided to have you myself."

She took a second to think through her options before reaching behind herself and grabbing hold of a vase of flowers and throwing it at Brody's head. In the last second, he lurched forwards and out of the way, grabbing hold of Santana's jacket and knocking her to the floor. Her head hit the ground and a splitting feeling erupted in her skull. Beneath him she struggled and feebly pounded her fists against him.

"I love her!" Brody shouted and brought his clenched fist down against her face. She lifted her leg and knew, from his deep grunt, that her knee had found its purchase in his crotch. He spat, "Bitch."

Her eyes widened as the glint of the metallic blade caught the flirtatiously dim lighting of the room. He smiled and nodded, lifting the knife above his head. A shrill scream escaped Santana's lips, so loud it throbbed inside her head along with her injuries.

Brody clamped his hand down on her mouth, partially covering her nose, and ignored her petty attempts at biting him. He dropped his arm and pulled the blade slowly down her cheek, drawing a line of blood before bringing it back up and carelessly lowering it again.

"Brody!" Santana registered a new voice shouting from somewhere in the room, loud and terrified. His name echoed through her thoughts as black spots clouded her vision along with the white hot pain that shot through her thigh.

Sebastian lunged at the pair, thumping Brody on the back of the head where he knew it would knock him unconscious. He swayed for a second before collapsing sideways, revealing Santana lying beneath him. Sebastian's breath caught at the sight of her and, despite the ridiculousness of it all, he felt himself cataloging everything that had changed about her appearance since the last time he'd seen her—how she'd grown her hair out, her features had become more defined on her face. She looked gorgeous, even beneath the blanket of bruises that littered her face.

Shaking some sense back into himself, Sebastian shoved Brody's limp body off her and lifted Santana into his arms, running at full pelt down the neat hotel corridor and thundering down the stairs into the lobby.

"Get an ambulance," he said by way of announcing himself, panting, "Now!"

He was greeted by a second of stunned silence from the few people in the dim lobby before someone behind the desk began dialling 911. Soon after, the strangers in the room came back to Earth and started flapping around in a worry.

A woman screamed, "Have you killed her?"

Sebastian stared at her incredulously, "No."

As soon as the ambulance arrived, Sebastian relinquished Santana from his grip into the safe care of the doctors. "Do you want to come in the ambulance with us?"

"No," Sebastian said again, "Her name is Santana Lopez."

With that, he took off back upstairs to find Brody. The idiot needed him to clean up after him _again_. He methodically cleaned up the shattered glass, put everything neatly back where it should go and dragged the small armchair over to where Brody and Santana had lain, covering the small blood stains on the carpet. The last piece out of place, the key card for the hotel door, lay forgotten on the ground with the large number 231 printed onto it. He picked it up and slipped it into his jacket pocket. When he was done tidying the room looked completely unused and almost as it had before.

Sebastian bent down and lifted Brody, his body more than twice as heavy as Santana's dainty frame. He threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's lift and took the stairs again. When he reached the ground floor, Brody was coming back to consciousness and the two of them manoeuvred there way to the reception desk.

"Hello," Sebastian said, flashing a charming smile for the twenty-something behind the desk. "Could I see who checked into room 231?"

"Uh, I'm not—," she began but found herself looking into the sparkling eyes of Sebastian Smythe, lured in by that smile of his, "Sure, that was Vicky Kurtz."

"OK, thank you," he winked and pushed away from the table with one hand, the other supporting Brody as he drunkenly moved.

"Seb," Brody gurgled. Sebastian turned to look at him expectantly. "Thanks. For getting rid of the evidence or whatever you do."

They were on the cool New York sidewalk now, car headlights illuminating the darkness and the impatient talking of people on their phones providing a soundproof blanket for their conversation. Sebastian turned down the wide alley beside the hotel and propped Brody up on the wall.

"No problem," he said, smiling the same smile he had for the receptionist. Sebastian lifted his fist and buzzed with the satisfaction that came when it connected with Brody's face. With the force of his punch, his head knocked back against the brick wall and he slumped to the ground. "Dick."

Sebastian turned and walked away.


	2. Sisters

_So I decided the last chapter would work as a prologue and we're now in santana's pov! _

_And also thank you to **WeAreTheChampions **for following, **pattyholdbrok **for favouriting and following and __**Stargazer2000** for following and also for your lovely comment, it was honestly probably the nicest thing anyones ever said about my writing._

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**Rock Steady**

**Sisters**

_[Santana's POV]_

After they'd checked me over and put me back together again, the doctors moved me into a semi-private room to get some rest…which had become difficult after a small amount of time when the constant movement of nurses had woken me up. Their chatter was more innocent than any thoughts or dreams I could have at that moment, anyway: Susan was cheating on her boyfriend—but! her boyfriend seemed more interested in guys. Also, the guy trying to sleep in the bed beside me was apparently super hot. It was like a TV show or something. I wondered if he was having as much trouble sleeping as I was.

"Oh, my God," a familiar squeak of a voice startled me from my fake-sleep and my eyes flew open, heart hammering. "Santana!"

"You made me jump, Berry," I tried to grumble back but my voice came out as a croak. Rachel bent over me with Kurt looming close behind her but giving me more room to breath. His face creased in concern and he went around the other side of my bed, taking my hand in his.

"How did you get like this?" he asked me as Rachel noisily went about getting the two of them chairs. They sank down into their seats and I avoided their gazes, the looks of pity they were giving me sickening my stomach.

"Don't be cranky," I said to Rachel, "But seriously: leave your boyfriend."

Rachel stared at me as the words sank in. "Brody did this to you?" her voice quivered and her hands retreated from their steal grip on my arm, as if I was suddenly infectious.

"Like I said, don't be mad…but we were going to catch him out. I called him to a hotel room and he came," I, usually finding myself so apt at confrontation, couldn't bring myself to look the girl in the eyes as I broke the truth to her, "Finn was supposed to arrive shortly after but Brody said 'one of his friends' was taking care of him."

"Finn?" another wave of confusion washed over her. Kurt slipped his arm around her shoulders as a tear worked its way down her face.

"So no one knows where Finn is," Kurt said, trying to take control of the situation for us. "How did you get here?"

"I have no idea," the thought sending crawling itches down my skin, which had clearly been touched by whatever stranger had found me. "I guess someone found me in whatever state Brody left me and called an ambulance."

"Do we know where Brody is?" Kurt asked, then something flashed in his eyes as another thought dawned on him, "You don't think that…did he intend to hurt you…more?"

"I don't know," I sighed, breath shaking with the tears that I was working to suppress until I was alone and Kurt's interrogation was over—being afraid of showing people my feelings wasn't something I was going to quickly overcome.

At that moment, the curtain that separated my bed from the one beside it was drawn back with a whooshing sound. The three of us looked over at the nurse dragging it back and then at the broken figure lying on the other bed.

A large cast ballooned over his foot and up his leg, matching the one around his arm suspended by a sling from his neck. They'd cleaned up his face but angry red grazes dug into his skin and blood clots clung to his hair, uneven like some of it had been pulled out.

"Finn!" Rachel expelled the name like a breath of air and she flew across the room to his side, "Oh, my God."

From where Kurt and I remained, I could just about hear him croak, "I just wanted to protect you, Rachel. I'm sorry."

"Oh, my God," Rachel repeated, her hands now up by her head, gripping her hair, "I can't believe I got you two into this situation!"

"Don't blame yourself," I attempted, "We were dumb enough to do it. Look at Lady Hummel, he's pristine."

"They said I got here a little while before you did," Finn spoke to the ceiling, seemingly unable to turn his head in order to see me at such a severe angle. "Left outside for someone to discover me and bring me in. They think I walked myself here in a sort of stupor. I can't remember anything."

"I can still remember his cocky little face when he knew I'd realised you'd taken too long to arrive. The hate in his eyes as he sat and hurt me," as I spoke I could no longer see the room I was in, but an almost movie-like re-enactment of the event. "Oh!" something new jumped into the memory. "I remember something."

Kurt's grip on my hand tightened with anticipation. "What?"

"There was someone else there," I nodded then winced at the pain that accompanied the small movement—bad idea, "Before I blacked out someone shouted Brody's name. I think it was a boy."

"Well done," Kurt said supportively, patting my hand but I could sense his disappointment. "See if you can remember more."

* * *

A sudden almost thud-like noise woke me from my restless dreams. I opened my eyes but the room around me looked the same as it had when we'd fallen asleep. _Calm down, you're being paranoid. It's a hospital—there are hundreds of people here, they're bound to make some sounds._

I yawned and moved my hands to stifle it when I felt something not letting me curl my hand properly. I looked down at my left hand and in it was something I had definitely not fallen asleep holding.

I was holding a small white envelope, the flap still unsealed. The crawling sensation was beginning to come across me again as I pulled out the small card in the envelope—someone had been in this room while the four of us were sleeping.

_7:30pm, night you're released, Sisters,_

_Breathe a word and I'll be back for Finn_

My eyes flicked to the small window in the door again; suddenly feeling like someone was watching me. Undoubtedly this was from Brody. The thought that he'd seen me in my weakest state—had the ability to do anything without me knowing—made me want to throw up. And the creepy was keeping tabs on how long they're keeping me here.

No longer did the hospital feel like a safe place where people were awake 24/7 and Brody couldn't touch me. No, it had become a prison, keeping my under Brody's watchful eye until I could escape back to the apartment.

"Santana," Kurt groggily lifted his head from where it was resting on his arms, propped up on my bed, "What's that?"

_Breathe a word and I'll be back for Finn_. "Oh, erm…It's a message the receptionist took from my parents. They can't make it."

"Good you're awake," a nurse coming into the room forced Kurt to tear his dubious expression from me, "We've evaluated your situation and, since the wound wasn't too deep, you should be good to go tomorrow morning. Not so much can be said for your friend, though."

At the sound of voices, Finn raised his said, "What?"

"I was just saying, Mr Hudson, you're going to have to stay with us a little while longer," the nurse explained to him, retreating out of the room before his grumpy expression could evolve into anything worse.

As I made my way down the crowded sidewalk, I tugged my leather jacket tighter around myself in an attempt to fight off the chilly New York air which bit at the bare skin of my legs.

Kurt and Rachel had been so unwilling to let me out of the apartment that I'd had to wait until Rachel was using all of the hot water in the shower and I'd sent Kurt into his bedroom to find us a movie until I could make my escape. But the trouble I'd had getting away from them meant that it was now 7:27pm and I was still at least five minutes walk from the bar in which Brody had told me to meet him.

The angry voices of people snapping into their cell phones provided a low hum to mute my anxious thoughts. Having to leave the apartment in such a speed had made it easy to get out onto the streets but once I was there my mind kept trying to tell me to go back.

Just as my feet were starting to ache from walking so quickly in attire I'd dubbed Sisters-worthy, the sign above the bar loomed into view. I release my grip on my jacket to open the door.

Inside it was already starting to get busy: a few guys sat at the bar either eyeing up the girl on serving duty or watching the game on the TV and the usuals were dotted around at various tables, looking as though they'd been drinking since noon—or earlier.

I hopped up onto the barstool at the furthest distance from any of the guys and gave the girl my order. She returned, placing the bottle in front of me and was about to ask for the money, when someone by my shoulder suddenly said, "I'll take this," and slid a note across the bar to her. "Keep the change."

I swallowed the lump in my throat as he slid onto the chair next to me, willing myself to look at him without throwing up.

"It's been a while," he said. What? Just then I noticed the voice wasn't low and attempting-to-be-sexy enough to be Brody's. I looked up and into a pair of green eyes, glinting like they were laughing at me. "Sebastian…Smythe, do you not remember me?"

"Oh. I remember you," I fixed a fake smile onto my face. Over his shoulder I saw someone new walking into the bar, their hood casting a shadow over their face.

"How are you doing?" he asked. Just then, the person pushed back the hood and was looking over at the pair of us. Brody smirked, starting to walk in our direction when his eyes fell upon the person before me.

"I'm doing fine," I replied, unable to take my eyes off the monster that was now debating whether he was still coming over or not.

"What are you…?" Sebastian asked then looked over his shoulder. I watched his eyes lock onto Brody's and Sebastian raised his hand in a sarcastic wave, "Is that your boyfriend or something?"

I don't know what, but something seemed to have passed between Sebastian and Brody because he was suddenly backing out of the bar and into the street. His eyes lingered on me for a second, narrowing as if to tell me that this wasn't over and then he was gone, off into the night. "God no," I breathed, relief washing over me in waves.

"Good, 'cause I don't want to get into the situation we were last time I saw you," he said with a wink. "Shall we get something a little stronger?"

* * *

"I told you," I said, approaching Sebastian, "That I would beat you."

"I let you win," he smiled smugly, leaning against the pool table and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I've always been better at this than you," I declared, launching my pool cue into the air by way of celebration.

Sebastian reached out and caught it before it could damage anything in its path, placed it on the table and then reached for my arm, "Come on, Santana. I think you've had enough."

"Says the guy who's been pouring drinks in my mouth all night," I frowned at him.

"I think we should go. Tell me your address and I'll take you come," he said, putting an arm around my shoulders to steer me to the exit. I tried to squirm out of his grip but his arm kept me in place.

"No way am I telling you where I live. You'll be over for more fist fights with any guys I happen to like," I rolled my eyes at him.

"You can't hold someone's past against them," he told me, "Besides, if you don't tell me where you live…"

He signalled a taxi over and opened the door, finally relinquishing me from his grip but only to persuade me inside of the cab.

"…Then I guess you're just coming home with me."

I sat in silence, staring at him. That infuriating look of amusement appeared on his face.

"OK, then. If that's what you want," he shrugged, giving his address to the taxi driver who immediately pulled back into the slow moving stream of traffic. "Really, Santana. You never could resist me."

"You're not funny, Sebastian, what are you doing?" I asked him, pressing myself into the door of the taxi, as far away from him as I could get.

"You're acting like I'm going to hurt you," he reached out a hand and watched me try to shrink away. He dropped it, letting his hand cover mine. I flinched. "What did I ever do to you to make you afraid of me?"

"Perhaps using your fists whenever you didn't get what you wanted," I suggested.

"I'd never hurt you," he said, holding my hand tighter now, "I'm sure you know that."

I looked at him through my beer goggles, the torment now gone from his face and in its place sincerity. His eyes no longer twinkled with amusement but seemed concerned. He tugged lightly on my hand and I sighed, scooting away from the door and a little closer to him. "OK, I know you won't hurt me physically. But you've hurt me in other ways before."

* * *

When I woke up the next morning I felt more rested than I had in ages—no Rachel singing in the shower or Kurt clattering around in the kitchen, no banging on the ceiling from whatever craziness was going on upstairs or visits from Brody to my hospital room.

We must've forgotten to close the curtains last night because through the huge window that I could look out of from the bed, I could see the city in full swing, still awake from last night. The morning sunlight cast huge squares of light across the room, turning the colour I could see when I closed my eyes from what should've been a murky brown to bright orange.

I rolled onto my back, now feeling the presence of the arm that Sebastian had thrown across me. His bedroom was maybe twice the size of the box I slept in, with light brown coloured walls and a plush white carpet. I guessed his mother had decorated it for him because back in Ohio, Sebastian's room was dark and messy most of the time.

For a few seconds, I found myself looking across at him sleeping. He looked so much younger and more vulnerable as he rested, almost like a child.

I tore my gaze from him and checked the alarm clock on the table beside me. _Crap_, I thought, suddenly remembering my roommates and their reluctance to have me leave last night. They'd be in fits about where I was.

I slid out from underneath Sebastian's arm and looked around myself for my clothes. They were scattered across the floor. I picked them all up and began getting back into them when my eyes fell across something other than the alarm clock on the bedside table.

I shrugged on my leather jacket and approached for closer inspection. On the table was a small card—credit card sized—with the number 231 printed onto it.


	3. Blackmail

_Now that I'm back at school I'll hopefully be uploading fairly regularly but if I don't: there's a lot of work and a huge amount of exams coming up so that'll be why.  
_

_Thank you to **DreamersBliss**, **EllenMai**, **ForeverGleek242**,** PurpleVanilla5** for following my story and thank you everybody who left reviews, it really means a lot to hear your encouragement :)_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Blackmail**

I couldn't help myself; numbly, I reached out an arm and picked up the card, turning it over in my hand. As if maybe it'd turn into something else the more I looked at it.  
But there was no escaping the truth: for some reason, Sebastian was holding onto the key card from the hotel room in which I met Brody the other night.

Looking between him, sleeping so peacefully on the bed, and the card in my hand, I wanted nothing more than to believe that it'd been him to call me an ambulance…that the guy I'd very probably just slept with could be my _hero_. However if I knew Sebastian, which I was fairly sure I did, that was unlikely. Besides, if he had called me the ambulance, why not accompany me to the hospital and make sure I was OK? Something strange happened that night which I had no knowledge of.

Then I remembered the voice I'd heard right before I'd blacked out. Could that have been Sebastian? Maybe he called the ambulance after seeing to Brody…but he couldn't have known we'd be there. And despite all his bravado, it was doubtful that he could take Brody.

"Santana," he half-whispered my name, voice thick with sleep but when I looked at him, his eyes were as awake as ever and staring intently at me. I dropped the key card.

Shakily, my hand grabbed for it again and I held it up for him to see. Something crossed his face as he realised what it was. "Why do you have this?"

"I—," he stammered, at a sudden loss for words. If he couldn't tell me, it must be bad. I felt a tear managing to escape from my eyelids, dry for so long but Sebastian Smythe was back—the guy who could always find a way to break the spell. I felt dirty all over, knowing that the wretch's hands will have been all over me last night. I turned and bolted from the room, just registering Sebastian jumping from the bed in a struggle, trying to hold the covers around himself at the same time as following me, "I can explain!"

I found myself in a small corridor, running in the direction my instinct suggested. A few doors sprung up on my sides: another bedroom, similarly plain and characterless as Sebastian's, a bathroom and finally a kitchen.

Through an archway on the other side of the kitchen I could see into a living room. Just as I was running in that direction, I heard a door slam from the way I was heading—could Sebastian have beaten me there?

"I'm home!" a voice shouted, raising the hairs on the back my neck. I ran my hand along them, wondering why I felt suddenly so on edge and stopped in my tracks, just inside the kitchen. After a moment of silence the voice called, "Sebastian?"

I heard the quiet slapping of Sebastian's bare feet against the tile of the kitchen as he came up behind me. He raised a finger to his lips, signalling my silence.

"Oh, good work, my friend," the voice was now speaking, not shouting and much closer. Slowly, I turned around to find Brody leaning casually against the archway, his smirk glittering in full glory.

* * *

I held my hand over my mouth, feeling the quick hot breath from my nose against it as I attempted to swallow back the bile rising in my throat. 'Home'—Sebastian lived with Brody? He had the key card on his bedside table! A heavy intake of breath, almost a sob, escaped my throat as it hit me a third, fourth time.

"Shh," Brody swooped closer, taking his hand and rubbing my back 'comfortingly'. I couldn't control them anymore; silently, tears were welling up in my eyes and escaping. I looked over my shoulder at Sebastian. His jaw was clenched and he was looking at me with an expression I'd never seen him wear before. He looked almost angry as he looked at the pair of us but something in his eyes made him look sad.

"Now, Santana," Brody said. His breath tickled my face as he spoke, thick with beer and cigarette smoke. Hearing him talking calmly was unnerving. "I'm assuming you've run to Rachel with your discovery…I bet Finn loved relaying that story."

I glared at him, spotting a rack of sharp kitchen knives sitting on one of the counters behind him but, thinking about it, last time I'd tried to fight him it hadn't worked out so well.

"But see, I think you've got your facts wrong," he grabbed my chin with his hand and forced my eyes from the knives and onto his, "I never harmed you, I am not a prostitute and Rachel has every right to be with me—understood?"

"You want me to lie for you?" I asked drily, "Do you think she'll believe me now if I tell her it wasn't you? Finn backed me up, that's proof enough for her."

"How about this: Finn was so consumed with his love for her that he blackmailed you into getting me out of the picture but you didn't want to do it anymore so he tried to fight you into doing it," he ran a finger down my face, wiping away a fresh tear, "and I caught the two of you brawling so I tried to help but you agreed to it in the end."

"Oh, wow. You've managed to make yourself a hero, as well."

"Come on, Weston," Sebastian spoke up for the first time. Hearing a voice other than Brody's almost made me happy. Until I remembered it was Sebastian's. "Rachel can't be this much trouble. Just let the girl go."

"Like you've let this one go?" Brody spit at him but, as I was in the way, I intercepted it. "I love her, man. I'm going to do everything I can to get her back. And you," he looked back down at me, "Understand this: if you don't go back to her and correct what you've done, I'm not afraid to keep coming back for you until you have, OK."

"Fine just get off me," I snapped, shoving him away from me but he didn't budge.

"How am I going to believe you?" he asked me, a teasing shimmer appearing in his eyes.

"I don't know, Brody," just saying his name made me feel ill, "You tell me."

"If you don't do what I've asked," he said slowly, eyes finding Sebastian's over my head. Something malicious was skittering onto Brody's face, "Then Seb and his crew will do much worse to you than they did to Finn."

Having momentarily forgotten Sebastian's betrayal, I looked over my shoulder at him with eyes blazing. He had done that to Finn—the guy who not so many years ago he actually spent time with; one of the few people Sebastian was actually decent to?

I pushed Brody to the side and this time he let me, stepping back to let me past. I marched into the living area, sparsely decorated with furniture and characterless paintings.

"And who knows," Brody called after me from where I'd left the two of them, "Maybe if you get back in shape after what they do to you, you could come work for the same agency as us."

I was so repulsed I could hardly think of anything to say back to the toad, so instead I opened the door to leave there apartment. Resting on a cupboard to my right was a thick glass vase. Without a second thought I lifted the vase and flung it at the flat screen TV that proudly hung on the wall with as much force as I could muster.

I jumped into the hallway and shut the door quickly behind me, just in time to hear a smash followed by some loud crashing noises.

* * *

I unfolded my arms and placed my hands on my hips. Then, I refolded them.

"Come on, Santana. How long are we going to do this for?" Kurt moaned, glancing at his watch.

On the sofa before me, I had asked Kurt and Rachel to sit down as I had 'something to tell them'. Now they had been waiting expectantly for no short of five minutes. On the outside I looked nervous but inside my head World War Three was breaking out over what I was supposed to say. I couldn't just brush it off now because the two of them knew I had something…

But I couldn't bring myself to speak a word of Brody's lies. Just thinking about it made me uneasy.

"I…," I tried to make a start but the words caught in my throat. If I told them the truth, Brody was going to set his whore-buddies on me and that included Sebastian. If he had Sebastian on his side no amount of emotional trauma was too excessive.

"Out with it, Santana," Rachel finally broke after sitting silently the whole time, "I've got to go visit Finn at the hospital before visiting hours are over."

"Fine—," I began, only to be cut off by a sharp rapping against the door. I looked at the other two but their expressions were as clueless as mine. With a sigh, I walked over and took the chain off the door, rolling it back. "Oh, my God. No way are you here."

"Let me explain," Sebastian jumped in, shoving his hand against the door as I tried to pull it back into place. "I think I can help you."


	4. Revisiting

_Hello everyone! I'm sorry its taken me such a bloody long time to get this one out-a month! So this ones probably the longest chapter I've written for this fic so far (i think). I'm finished with school now so I'll hopefully update more regularly.. or not cause I've got loads of exams. Don't worry, I probably won't stick to revision too tightly. Oh and I also wanted to mention: cause its Santana's POV I tried to make it a bit American-y written, so if I say something weird and British, don't kill me-its cause i _am_. _

_Thank you: **Stargazer2000 **for your lovely review; __**EllaChocolate **for both your review and favouriting the story; **RuKka **and **istephni **for favouriting and following and **maricafa **and **TARDISdoctor **(i do like your name) for following. The support is really encouraging and I'm so pleased by the number of people who are enjoying the story!_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Revisiting**

"Why should I let you into my home?" I snapped at him, blocking his entrance, "You've violated me enough."

"You don't have to let me in, I can explain everything to you from where I am," he shrugged but his eyes still lingered on the two sat on the couch in the living area.

"OK, go ahead."

He looked at me for a second, one eyebrow raised. "Alright then. The other night Brody called me and a load of the others out saying there was a problem and we had to sort out this guy; Brody had got wind of him talking about the same hotel room he was heading to that night—"

"Finn?"

"Yes. So I turned up where he'd asked us to go and all the others were enjoying themselves, hurting the guy. They were torturing him to find out what was going on at the hotel. When they finally got out of him that you were there waiting for Brody, I realised, through all the blood and gashes, that it was Finn. And then I knew there was only one Santana he could be talking about."

"And being so heroic you came and saved me?"

"Well, no," he shot me an amused glance before looking back down at his feet, like a child being scolded, "They called Brody to let him know it was you there waiting for him and that Finn was taken care of. Brody wanted no evidence of us wherever we left Finn but that wasn't my job…Brody and I have each others backs. It was my duty to clear any evidence from the hotel room.

"By the time I turned up, Brody had already knocked you out. There wasn't a stage in the plan that said you had to be harmed, but that's the way it was. So I cleaned up the room, sent you off to the hospital and then sorted Brody out."

"When you said you could 'explain' I thought you'd be clearing your name," I frowned at him, "This really isn't helping your case."

"Brody told me he was going to find you and make you tell Rachel a different story. I saw him leave that note for you at the hospital; that's why I happened to be at the same bar as you. Brody would've come over if he hadn't seen me there."

"He found me anyway. Surely taking me to his apartment was going to mean we _definitely _crossed paths."

"Whatever, I'm not here to convince you I did the right thing," he said, suddenly urgent, "You can't lie to Rachel. If she gets back with Brody, she'll never get rid of him. He's violent and manipulative and he shouldn't be free to walk the streets."

"Interesting choice of words," I couldn't help but say. "So what do you propose we do?"

"Let me inside and I'll tell you," he winked. I sighed but let him in this time.

Rachel and Kurt's quiet chatter fell to silence as they laid eyes on Sebastian. "Since when have you been back on the scene?" Rachel gaped.

"I don't think Santana ever truly forgot me," Sebastian smiled smugly over his shoulder at me, "But very recently did we meet again."

Kurt's eyes flashed between the pair of us, his brain moving so quickly I could almost see it working.

"Hello, Kurt, lovely to see you again," Sebastian nodded at him, standing before the two on the couch. "Brody has asked Santana to tell the two of you that she and Finn made everything up about his um…job. But I can tell you its definitely true."

"Sebastian," I rushed over to him and glared at his smirking face, "Are you trying to get me beaten up?"

"Brody said he's going to set me and my 'crew' on you if you don't do what he says," Sebastian's smirk phased into his dazzling smile as he turned to look down at me, ignoring my angry expression. "When it comes to our colleagues I'm more popular than Brody is; I think I can handle it."

"Colleagues," I muttered under my breath, turning away from him.

"I think, as a precaution perhaps I should keep constant watch over you, just in case Brody takes matters into his own hands," Sebastian grinned at me, the twinkle in his eyes laughing so I couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.

"I'm sure one of the neighbours has a spare dog bed, so that should be fine," I rolled my eyes and sat down on the couch beside Rachel. She was looking at me with the same stricken expression than had formed when Sebastian walked into the room.

"You can't be serious, you're not living with us," she cried.

"OK, whatever, you're digging your own grave," he shrugged.

"So, in the mean time, what do you suppose we do?" I asked him, looking up at the confident smile upon his face. It was like he was enjoying our situation.

"I suggest that we act like you've told Rachel Brody's version of things because, I hate to break it to you, Rach but there's a very easy way to get Brody out of our lives," his smile grew with satisfaction, "He's been a very naughty boy."

* * *

Sebastian picked the remote up from where it rested beside me on the couch and flicked the TV off. I glared up at him, about to snap out a retort but he shook his head at me, a little too violently, and the fresh droplets of water from the shower he just took sprayed across me, "Eugh, Seb!"

"Sorry, were you watching that?" he asked with a pleasant smile, lightly throwing the remote onto the chair a few feet away from us so I couldn't reach it. "Thanks for letting me have a shower."

"No problem," I tugged my dressing gown tighter around me as he lowered himself into the space beside me, despite the fact he was probably only too familiar with my body by now. "I guess we're never getting rid of you now."

"I'd have thought me being here was good for you all; I'm more street-wise than the three of you, it should make you feel safer," he ran his hand through his hair and flicked the water from his fingers across the room. I cringed. "By the way, someone has a _lovely_ flowery conditioner. The one in the pink bottle."

I laughed under my breath, "Oh, Rachel is going to kill you for using that."

"She can try," he said smugly. He closed his eyes and leant his head back against the cushions of the sofa.

"Tired?"

"Surprisingly you don't get much rest with a psycho as a roommate," he opened his eyes again and looked across at me with a blank face. Whenever Sebastian's face was missing its smirk it always unnerved me, it was like seeing someone who needs glasses wearing contacts—reserved for special occasions. "But he's out most nights anyway."

"Do you think it'll work—getting the cops to bust him for drug dealing?" I asked him the thought that had been niggling at the back of my mind for the past hour or two.

"If Rachel can pull it off, I think it will. She's training to be an actress, right?" he put a hand on my arm and this time I didn't flinch, "It'll be alright, Santana."

"Strangely it doesn't comfort me much when you say that."

"Come on, you can't hate me as much as you pretend to," the sobriety of his expression still stunning me. His hair was already beginning to dry off, the lack of styling leaving it in its fluffy natural state like he wore it when he was a young boy.

"It's not that I hate you," I shook my head quickly, unable to accept the idea that he thought that, "I just don't trust you. Can't trust you."

* * *

Looking down into the depths of my cereal, I could almost see the blackness of the rings under my eyes. Last night all I could think of was what would happen if this all went wrong at some point—what would happen to Rachel for pretending, to me for repeatedly lying to Brody and getting away with it…to Sebastian for completely betraying a 'colleague'. It wasn't a very clean business; these people could do anything to us, Finn was living proof of that, still cooped up in his hospital bed.

Across the table from me Rachel was wolfing down her breakfast of a single banana, travel coffee cup ready for an early morning outing. She lit the screen on her phone again, either for the time or expecting a text, I didn't know. When she was in a mood like that it was best not to get in her way or she'd get moody.

At first I thought the loud yawn that dragged me from my thoughts was my own but then I saw Sebastian with his arms above his head in a large stretch making his way towards us. Last nights neat fluffy hair was ruffled by sleep and stuck out all over the place, the shadows under his eyes matching my own; clearly I was not the only one lying awake last night.

Rachel power-chewed the last bit of banana and binned the skin, checking her phone again. "Off to see the broken boyfriend?" he asked with a sleepy grin, "Or the druggy boyfriend?"

She shot daggers at him before turning her gaze back to her phone, grabbing her bag and rushing from the apartment. At the loud departure Kurt reared his head, "I feel like I can breathe now she's gone."

"Aw, San!" Sebastian suddenly exclaimed, coming over and taking the seat beside me, "You made me breakfast."

I gaped at him as he lifted the butter and jam coated slice of bread to his mouth and took a huge bite. I said sarcastically, "Always thinking of you, Sebby."

He smiled a jammy smile at me and looked over at Kurt, "So, what are we doing today?"

"We?" Kurt looked up, "I'm working today. Sadly I can't spend any time with you, Sebastian."

"Oh, too bad," he laughed, glancing at me, "I guess it's the two of us."

"Perfect."

"How about I plan the day, let you relax," he patted my hand and, having already cleared the plate of food, got to his feet. He scooped up the clothes he'd been wearing the previous day and disappeared into my bedroom.

"Why does he assume I want him to use my bedroom?" I grumbled, propping my spoon up against the edge of the bowl and sitting back from the table, done with my breakfast.

Kurt shot me a smug smile, "OK, Santana, you pretend to be ignorant."

"Oh, God, Kurt. Don't go down this road again," I shook my head at him.

"Fine, fine," he laughed and folded up the magazine he was reading, "I'm going to go, see you later."

I sat in silence as he made his way across the room and pulled on his jacket and scarf, quickly checking his phone before slipping it into the pocket.

"Enjoy your day out with Prince Charming," he said and raced out of the door with a guilty smile on his face.

"Did Kurt leave?" Sebastian appeared as the door slammed into place. I tried to fight the colour rising in my cheeks and batted away the thought—_of course Sebastian hadn't heard what he said_…

"Yeah he had to go to work."

"Do you think you could help me find some hetero-looking clothes in his closet? I don't really want to wear yesterdays stuff again," he bit his lip and batted his eyelashes at me.

"You're such a child," I sighed but, nevertheless, rose from my seat, "Fine."

I opened the door to Kurt's bedroom, Sebastian following closely on my heels. It was a rare occasion that I went inside Kurt's room and it seemed that each time I did he'd managed to redecorate even though the walls were always the same shade of chocolate-y brown. Posters of Josh Hutcherson and Lady Gaga currently crowded the wall opposite his bed, artistically arranged and he'd invested in a few more decorative pillows to place on his bed, matching the new gold and brown bed sheets.

"Wow," Sebastian stared at the room, focusing separately on different areas as if it was too much to take in as a whole, "You know, this rooms a lot nicer than yours."

"Shut up," I shoved his arm lightly but stepped away from him to open the closet and looked upon its excessive contents. "I'll start this end, you go over there."

He followed my orders and started pawing through the clothes, a frown deepening on his face. I tugged Kurt's heavily sequined waistcoat from where it proudly hung on its hanger. Sebastian's jaw dropped wide open, "You are not suggesting I wear that."

"Nah, I'm joking. It was part of his Single Ladies costume; if you want I'm sure he has his leotard in here as well!" I beamed.

"Erm…let's keep looking," he said, burying himself back in the wardrobe. A minute or so later he re-emerged with a sweater in his hands, "This is OK."

I looked at the thin blue top and nodded, "Yeah, he'd have managed to dress that up somehow. It looks like it'll fit you."

He took off the top he was wearing and slipped the jumper over his head. It looked a little snug but not ridiculous. "If his pants look tight on _him_…I think I'll keep my own."

"Wise decision. Now if you don't mind, I'm going for a shower and getting ready myself."

"OK, do you mind me using your laptop? I'm going to plan our day out," he rushed out of the room before I could give him an answer either way, probably assuming my answer would be 'no'. Which it was.

* * *

"OK, I'm ready for whatever you've planned," I announced, flicking the fan off as I left the bathroom dressed and ready. My eyes scanned across the open plan apartment for Sebastian, finding him sat on the sofa with his feet up on the coffee table and my laptop open on his lap. "I see you've made yourself at home."

He glanced up at me, "Oh, sorry," he said and removed his feet from the table.

"I'm more bothered about the fact you've broken into my computer. It's password protected," I stared incredulously down at him from where I stood. A smile appeared on his face.

"It wasn't too hard to guess: 'Sebastian'. Could you be more obvious, Santana?" he asked, quickly closing the internet and shutting it down as I settled into the spot beside him on the couch. He looked at my bored expression, "OK, fine, that wasn't your password. I saw it written on a note in your bedside table drawer."

"You're so disgusting, that's where most girls keep their underwear!" I cried, snatching the computer off him.

"Hey," he stuck out his lower lip, "You know I was looking for clothes to borrow…"

I smacked his shoulder and blew out a sigh. "Did you get what you wanted from the computer?"

"Yep, we're all set to go," his smile returned like a switch had been flicked, "Get your crap, darling."

* * *

We got out onto the streets and Sebastian was practically jumping in the road to get us a cab. I stood patiently in one spot with my hands deep in my pockets and head bowed—'I do not know this man'. Eventually a taxi pulled over and Sebastian opened the door, gesturing for me to get in, "After you, madam."

He slid into the seat beside me and shut the door. Glancing at me, he leant forwards and whispered our destination to the cabbie, a hand covering his mouth. The driver looked at me in the rear-view mirror with a knowing smile. To this man Sebastian was an average cheesy boyfriend.

The whole way there we sat in pretty much silence, Sebastian giving me the occasional pleased grin when our eyes met. I shouldered my bag when the taxi pulled up to the curb and waited for Sebastian to pay before following him out of the cab.

He took hold of my hand, whether to guide me or act like we were a couple, I don't know and lead me forwards. With his long legs he was walking at top speed, dragging me along behind him and dodging out of the way of people. "This is such a nice day out," I grumbled.

"Stop whining we're nearly there," he tutted but slowed his pace until I could match it. When he turned the next corner I finally realised where we were heading.

"Oh, my God, I haven't been here in ages," I beamed and stepped up onto my tiptoes to see the entrance better over the heads of the group of people in front of us. Beside us a few cars inched forwards at the roads speed limit, people sat in their seats throwing us scornful looks for being able to overtake them on foot. "I think the last time was…"

He looked down at me with amusement, "Me too."

He paid for our entrance and started tugging me along behind him again, somehow already familiar with the large grounds of the zoo that we'd both visited only a handful of times. The zoo gift shop was only a few paces away when he turned to me, "I'm going to go inside, you wait out here for me."

I opened my mouth to argue but he turned his back on me and rushed inside the small building, not stopping to apologise to the people he barged in front of. I rolled my eyes and sat down on the bench resting against the front of the little shop, just beneath the window. Sitting there, there was a good view of the zoo: I could see the elephant, rhino and giraffe enclosures each with signs beside them pointing in multiple directions for the other animals.

Given that it was a Thursday morning, the zoo was almost empty and, thankfully, there weren't any obnoxious kids on school trips taking the day out. A couple sat on a bench together, huddled close and another pair with a kid in a buggie strolled past the elephants.

"Boo!" I snapped out of my daydream, jumping to attention. Sebastian sat down beside me wearing a bright pink hat with a huge snaking flamingo neck protruding out of the top, leading to its head. He leant forward and pecked my shoulder. "I got you something, too. Don't worry."

I sighed and watching him lift the plastic bag to his lap, making a big show about pulling whatever he'd bought me out of it. "Tadaa." He presented me with a stuffed parrot, a semi-circle missing from the bottom where he was now trying to put me head. "See, I remembered your favourite animal."

"I don't think I like parrots anymore," I muttered but helped him fix the hat into place nonetheless. At least I didn't look as dumb as he did.

He turned and looked over his shoulder, "Elephants are boring, let's go somewhere else," and out of his pocket came the leaflet we'd been given at the main desk, folded so all he could see was the little map of the grounds on the back. "Penguins."

He pulled me to my feet again and we walked down the pathway between the elephants and the giraffes. I looked over at them, "You're nearly as tall as they are with that stupid hat."

"I'll take that as a compliment about my height," he smiled and checked his watch, "After the penguins we're going to have to stop for lunch, it's nearly one. All you made me for breakfast was a slice of bread."

I ignored him and followed the signs pointing towards the penguin area. A few of them were sat on top of the rocks but even from a distance I could tell that they were mostly all swimming in the water. Sebastian walked ahead and went to sit beside two young children who had already taken post watching the penguins. He beckoned me over and patted the floor beside him. Somehow I found myself agreeing to sit on the dirty ground.

Two of them shot past like they were racing, following by another swooping in and out, flapping it's stubby wings like it was flying, Sebastian turned to me after a few minutes with a lopsided smile on his face, "What do penguins eat for lunch?" he waited a few seconds for an answer but none came, "Iceburgers."

I laughed under my breath, "You're such a dork. Are we going to get some food now?"

"Yeah, I spotted a nice looking place over that way," he gestured vaguely with his hand, "You go get comfy and I'll bring the meal, my sweet."

This time I didn't try to argue with him over leaving me behind and slowly got to my feet, dusting off my ass as I did so. Down a smaller pathway branching off to the right, surrounded by hedges and tree tops, a single bench was placed within a flower bed and a bin waited readily beside it. I wondered whether Sebastian would see me there, coming back from the other direction but decided to snag the bench anyway.

As I waited I watched the two children still sat staring at the penguins swimming around in the water. It was a boy and a girl, probably around ten years old. The girl whispered something to the boy and the two of them cracked up laughing, the boy rolling around where he sat, as if his laugh had taken control of his body. It reminded me of the few times Sebastian and I had come here together and we spent hours watching the parrots, flamingos and bats and never getting bored because we had each other, back when we were kids, when our mothers were friends with each other. Before mine…

Suddenly Sebastian came back into my view and looked around himself once, twice. I could see he was beginning to worry. "Sebastian!" I shouted. His head snapped around too far and he narrowed his eyes, searching, "Sebastian!"

His eyes found mine and he relaxed, beginning to jog in my direction. "Thought I'd lost you for a second then."

"Nope, I just thought it was a nice place to sit," I said when he was close enough for me to talk at a normal volume, "Didn't want those kids to steal it."

"Well, here you are," he said, pulling an arm from behind his back, "Bon appétit."

I took the ice cream tub from him and looked at it sceptically, "Your diet isn't very good."

"I like to fill my life with sweet things," he flashed me a grin, bringing out his own ice cream: an overloaded little pot with three dollops of ice cream in it, all in radioactive-looking colours. I didn't bother asking what flavours they were. "I got you the tastiest sounding boring one since I know you're not adventurous."

I scooped up a small amount of the ice cream and ate it, waiting for it to burn my mouth or something. "Mm, toffee!"

* * *

"I don't want to go in there. You know I never liked it," I creased my forehead and took a step backwards, away from both Sebastian and the bat enclosure at the same time.

"They're only fruit bats, San," he shook his head and grabbed my hand before I could snatch it out of the way. He gave my arm a gentle tug, "It's my favourite bit, please!"

I looked between the gloomy black building, huge entrance shaped like a bat and Sebastian's widened begging eyes and felt my resistance melting away. "Christ, fine."

"Yes," he cheered, celebrations wrenching my hand into the air and nearly pulling my arm from its socket. "Sorry."

"Let's just get this over with," I grumbled but didn't release his hand from mine even when his grip loosened—one of my biggest fears became bats when I was left alone inside this very building for over half an hour.

"Maybe this will help you get over your irrational fear," he suggested as we walked through the bat shaped gap in the entranceway. "I'll keep you safe, just stay close to me."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you," I said but did as he suggested, my shoulder bumping against his chest as we moved. Before us in big red writing it said 'Twilight Zone' with a double-door sized gap below, a heavy black curtain dropped to cover it. Sebastian pulled it aside for the pair of us to duck behind. We walked a little further into the cave, taking a turn into a section that only had another one or two people in it.

Above a bat let out a huge shriek and, as if by command, a few of them let go of whatever they were holding onto and dropped into the air, swooping low. I let out a breathy cry and ducked out of the way. Pushing my hair out of the way, I straightened back up and glanced at Sebastian who was smiling widely at me. "You always act so tough."

"Shut up," I crossed my arms over my chest. He wound an arm around my shoulders and guided me round a few more turns in the cave.

"I remember when we came the first time, the bats were the only animals in the zoo you hadn't seen before at another one and it was my first time at a zoo, so I hadn't seen them either," he gazed up at the ceiling, admiring the little bloodsuckers hanging from the roof. "You weren't scared of them then, you were intrigued. How does that work? Surely you'd be afraid of the unknown."

"Sometimes the more you know, the more you fear it," I said philosophically. He threw me a look I couldn't read in the low light and it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. "Can we go now?"

"Sure, OK," he squeezed me tighter to him for a second before leading us back to where we came in.

* * *

After a detour back to Sebastian's apartment to collect some supplies for him to spend a few more nights at ours—successfully managing to avoid Brody being there—we climbed the busy steps up from one of the stops on the subway. Sebastian skipped up the steps ahead of me, the stuffed-to-the-brim backpack slung over his shoulder not slowing him down at all. He waited for me to reach him before starting off down the street again. Apparently we had a new destination.

"I'm starving, Seb, this day out lasted longer than I thought it would," I moaned, grabbing his hand and pulling him backwards and into step with me. From my pocket I pulled my phone and checked the time. Half eight. Any longer and it'd be the latest dinner I'd had. "Ooh, I've got a text."

"Well, don't walk into people while you read it," he snapped, using our held hands to pull me out of the pathway of an oncoming businessman.

_Hey S, Finn's doing well. They said a few more days and he's out. Brody bought it too! The plans working, R xx_

As Sebastian dragged me away from another person, I put my phone back into my pocket to reply to Rachel's message later. "Finn can leave soon."

"Great," he stepped into the traffic that was at a stand still in the road, guiding us in and out of cars, "Then nearly all the high school crew will be back together."

"Yeah, we just need Puck and we're sorted," I said slyly, looking up at his face but he was still smiling ahead of us.


	5. A Plan

_I know, so unlike me: another update within the same week! aah the next chapters just exciting me a bit. Sorry for any mistakes, I bashed this out. _

_Thank you so much: **Stargazer2000**, **p****attyholdbrok **(you two especially for your constant support!), **Talking like a Lion **and **Hawkeye Obsessed** for the lovely reviews; **Talking like a Lion**, **Ridley Duchannes Malfoy Ride **and **greenharper **for favouriting and following and **I'mAFirestarter **for following._

_I can safely say that I'm completely overjoyed with the number of people supporting this as I thought there'd be very few._

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**A Plan **

"OK, stand right there and don't move." I raised an eyebrow but did as he said, watching expectantly for whatever he was going to do next. Sebastian slipped the rucksack off his shoulder and onto the ground, kneeling down to unzip it. I watched him pull out something heavily folded, shake it out until it was a huge square of material, checked in red and white. He spread it out across the floor and gestured for me to take a seat.

I crossed my legs beneath me and he flopped down opposite, lying on his left side so he faced me, leg bent at the knee as a balance. He dipped his hand inside the bag and pulled out a few plastic containers, off which he pulled the lids. I looked inside: two huge cupcakes, a selection of glimmering fruit and a mixture of what looked like cold pasta, salad and bacon.

"And finally…" he trailed off, presenting me with a full bottle of red wine. He set that down next to the food and fished out two plastic wine glasses from the bag as well. "Here we are."

I stared down at the selection, "Sebastian…"

"You like?" he asked, reaching back into the bag and finding two disposable plates, one of which he placed on my crossed legs.

"Yeah, well, I just never would have thought…" I said, still unable to find my words. "That, ehm…you'd do something like this."

"Did you not think that in the years we've not known each other I might've changed a bit?" he spooned some of the pasta onto my plate for me and offered me a fork, then served himself some food.

It occurred to me that he must have already had this stuff prepared when we went to his apartment, ready for him to bag and leave with but I batted the thought aside. Perhaps he was going to use it all to help him apologise at some point. "I know you've changed: you weren't a prostitute when I last saw you."

"_Escort_," he pronounced, "There's a difference. Besides I don't do much in that department, mostly just help Brody keep it legal. Enough about me, Santana. How are you, why are you living in New York?"

I looked at him through narrowed eyes; he was always so quick to change the subject. But the fight feel out of me and I indulged him, "At first I just came with Rachel and Kurt; I didn't want to lose my best friends because of college and I had no direction in life so it seemed a good way to spend the time I took figuring it out," I shrugged, waving him off when the wine level exceeded the glasses halfway point. "But I've started taking dance classes at Rachel's college. I missed it."

"So you want to be a dancer?" he glanced at the lamp the flickered on beside us, half disguised by one of the bushy park trees.

"I suppose so. I've always loved it, done it from a young age. You think I'd be good enough?"

"You're asking me?" he smiled in befuddlement, "I haven't seen you dance in a long time. But the last time I saw you, you blew my mind."

"Really?"

"I never really thought that a person could move so fluidly," he stared over at me and I managed not to look away, even though under his intense gaze I felt myself weakening, "It was, I don't know…_poetic _almost. I'm no good with words."

I furrowed my brow, "No good with words? I thought I was going to grow up to be an actress and you'd write all my movies for me?"

"Yeah, I dropped out of college pretty quickly," he broke the eye contact and looked down at the rug, smiling but through his eyes I could see he was somewhere else, "Lost my inspiration. I've not written in ages."

"If I knew how to help you, I would," was all I could say to him. He shook his head but still didn't meet my gaze. He suddenly looked so broken; it was shocking to me that I hadn't noticed it before.

"I only became an escort because I needed the money," he said suddenly, "I knew Brody from college, and he suggested it when I said I was dropping out and had no money, no future."

"I get that now," I assured him, finding his hand that was lost somewhere in the no-man's-land between us and holding onto it. For a few minutes I watched him staring at our hands before his eyes flicked to my empty plate and he snapped into action, taking the two cupcakes out of the box and putting one on either plate.

"I made them myself," he eyes were alight as he watched me peel back the case and take a bite. I chewed through the fluffy base and licked the lemon flavoured icing from my lips.

"It's lovely," I smiled at him and took another bite, watching as he took one of his own. "This is lovely."

"It is," he agreed, polishing off the last of his cake very quickly and lying down on his back, cupping his head in his hands and staring up at the sky, "Its like part of something I would've written a long time ago."

I slid my plate away from myself and lay down next to him, looking up at the few stars we could see through the pollution-induced layer of cloud that covered the night sky. I watched our stomachs rise and fall as we breathed, becoming steadier all the time until they were synchronised. "I thought you were gone."

"Me?" he asked uncertainly and pulled a hand from beneath his head, sliding it around my shoulders and moving closer to me. Only when he did so did the chill of the air begin to make itself known, cooling the parts of me that weren't blocked by his body heat.

"This part of you," I clarified, his heavy breathing blowing tickly hot air onto my head, through my hair.

* * *

I rolled over in my bed and opened my eyes. Around the sides of my blackout curtains light was beginning to peer in. The clock that stared back at me told me it was 9:00am. I shoved the covers back and looked around my room, the happy feeling in my chest increasing when I saw that I was alone. I'd fully been expecting after spending the day with Sebastian I'd wake up with him in my bed. It wouldn't be a first.

I went out into the living area and felt myself smiling at his peaceful body sprawled out across the couch. His face was pressed unattractively into a cushion, his mouth hanging open slightly. Thankfully there was no drool on his chin; I don't think I could've held it together if there was. I lifted a cushion from the chair nearest to me and flung it at him.

"Wha—woah!" he started, jolting himself so much that the tumbled off the settee. "Ouch."

"Aw, Sebby," I said sympathetically, going into the kitchen area to find myself some breakfast.

"Rachel went out a few minutes ago," he said from his crumpled position on the floor, rubbing the elbow he landed on. "She said she's gone to see Finn but she'll be back in an hour or two to talk _Busting Brody!_ She thinks tonight may be the night. She saw some suspicious stuff at his place last night, apparently."

I looked around for my phone then spotted it on the table in front of Sebastian. _What could it have been doing there_, I thought sarcastically and went to snatch it up, away from him.

_Hey S, I told Smythe to pass the message on but I doubt he will: I think tonight's the night! Be home in a bit to talk details, R xxx_

"Oh, yeah, she texted you as well," Sebastian muttered as he got to his feet. "I've already had breakfast, you don't need to make me any today. Kurt sorted it."

"Where is Kurt?" I suddenly realised his absence. He wasn't working was he…what day was it? Friday. God, I was so out of it.

"He's just gone for a shower," Sebastian smoothed a hand through his hair, "I can join in yours if you want. Sounds like he's nearly done."

"Brilliant idea," I said sarcastically and turned my back on him, back to my breakfast. I'd managed to convince myself that when I woke up this morning he might not be his arrogant self. I don't know how.

* * *

"Rachel," Sebastian beamed at her, eyes lighting up as soon as she appeared in the apartment. "Good, let's plan."

Rachel's eyes ghosted across the three of us. Sebastian stood where he had the other night when he'd presented us with this opportunity but this time he had a big board erected behind him which Rachel and Kurt used to choreograph the stupid dance routines they tried to get me to do. I sat in the chair to his left, head resting against my palm. Little did Rachel know we'd been sat waiting for her like this for about fifteen minutes. Considering Sebastian was supposed to be Brody's friend he was very eager.

Kurt swung his legs down and patted the sofa cushion beside himself. I'd strongly refused sitting there because it felt too weird, Sebastian acting like my teacher. From where I was sitting I was more of an observer.

"First order of business," Sebastian whipped out a long fondue fork from behind his back and pointed it at Rachel, "Where did you see his stash?"

"Well, he didn't have it all in one place, obviously," Rachel rolled her eyes at him, as if she knew something about drug possession. "But when I went looking there was some in an inside pocket of the coat he'd been wearing, some in a biscuit tin at the back of a cupboard…I think there was some in the bathroom somewhere, too."

"A biscuit tin?" I wrinkled my nose. "You're his roomie, you even said you found the stuff. Shouldn't you know where it is?"

"He moves it around a lot. Did it look like there was a fair amount?" Sebastian pressed on, practically ignoring me. I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, probably enough for some sort of jail time," she replied but looked more uncomfortable with the question. By the looks of things Sebastian had remembered she was clueless about that sort of thing.

"Even if there's not, he carries a lot of cash around with him. They'll probably think he's a dealer," Sebastian shrugged, "So, we need to get on with the plan."

The three of us looked at him blankly. His eyes lingered on each of us, the glow in his eye not dimming for a second even at the sight of our dumbstruck faces.

"OK," he uncapped his pen, "I know Brody comes home early today. At about three. It's a Friday so he might have a client. Sometimes he doesn't. Often, actually. He's not all that popular."

"Judging by the money in donkey face's wallet I don't think that's true," I offered.

"Maybe he just had a productive night before that," Sebastian smirked at Rachel, "He doesn't always stop at escorting. Anyway. If I go home today and see him, I'm sure I could keep him there for a while. He thinks we have one of those relationships where you're such good buds you argue but you're BFFs again the next day."

"I told him I'd go over at two for a late lunch with him," Rachel looked down at her feet, like she thought Sebastian was going to tell her off.

"OK, cool. You can be there when I arrive, that's fine," his eyes were laughing as her looked at her, "But he always goes into overdrive when he hears sirens so I think you should leave before we get the cops in…because if he realises they're in our building he'll probably try to throw the two of us out of the window.

"So you go on over at two, I'll be there at about three thirty. Which of you wants to make the call?" Again, his question was met by blank faces. "Guys, I can't do it, he'll probably hear me. Our apartment doesn't have very thick walls."

"I'll do it," I volunteered. His eyes found me but didn't seem to see me.

"No," he said and turned away before I could reply.

"What the hell? You asked for someone to do it, I said I'll do it," I stood up from my seat and glanced at the other two for back up. Why wouldn't Sebastian let me do this?

"Yeah, Santana should do it," Kurt said, biting his lip.

Sebastian looked at me, his eyebrows drawn up at the centre slightly. "Fine. I'll send you a text when you need to do it. Should be around five…maybe half five. Don't do it when you see Rachel leave, I need to get some stuff sorted first. There's a coffee house opposite the apartment building. Santana, Kurt, wait there. When you leave, Rachel, go see Finn or something. Stay away from the apartment. When the police come and everything's sorted, I'll find you guys. And we'll get you, Rachel."

* * *

Rachel had left to go to Brody's apartment a couple of hours ago. She was almost shaking when she left, that's how nervous she was about this whole thing. She'd latched onto me before she left and clung on, whining about how she was so sorry she'd dragged us all into this. I tried to say some words of consolation but a hysterical Berry doesn't allow much room for calm words. Sebastian disentangled her and locked her out. We hadn't checked but we guessed she'd left.

Kurt was in his bedroom 'catching up with some stuff for work' but the landline phone had been engaged for an hour or two so I guessed he was calling Blaine. I don't know why Kurt felt the need to hide the fact he still loved his ex from us, we both knew. Or at least I did, Rachel might've been too sucked up with her own drama to notice. But who was I to ruin the party? I indulged his little fantasy that it was a secret.

So that left Sebastian and I alone, as we'd been a lot recently. He was dejectedly disassembling the flip board so that we could stash it back in one of the many unused kitchen cupboards, grumbling about how he hadn't got to use it. I checked the time on my phone: five to three. "You better be going soon, your swanky apartment isn't all that close to us."

He slammed the cupboard door shut and came over to me. "You and Kurt could catch the subway with me."

"You said before we should get there about half four," I laughed. "We'd be a bit early if we went now."

"Yeah, OK, you're right," he shook his head and sat down next to me, "My minds just taking the opportunity to point out everything that could go wrong."

I took hold of his hand and tried to smile encouragingly at him. I'd never really tried to before so I don't know what it looked like but he didn't seem satisfied, "It'll be _fine_. And after this we can go on another one of your silly days out. How about that?"

"Really?" he looked up at me like a dog being tempted with a treat, "I thought I'd been to over the top last time. You know, Santana, you have changed since high school but you've not lost any of your spark."

I frowned at him, not sure how to take that. "Thanks…you better be going. Don't want to be late."

"OK," he looked at his watch, "Be safe. I don't want to lose you again."

And before I could process what he'd said he snatched me up into a bear hug so tight I couldn't breathe, let alone reply. I only managed to get most of my oxygen back by the time he was over by the door, shrugging into his jacket and then disappearing into the hallway.

* * *

"How longs it been now?" I groaned, staring into the bottom of my third cup of coffee. I couldn't have anymore or I'd never get to sleep. But I was just so _bored_.

"It's ten to six," Kurt replied drily. I could tell his patience with me was wearing thin but I was never one to be good at waiting. He looked out across the street again. "You're sure you never saw her leave?"

"Sure, sure. But I wasn't looking over there the whole time. Were you?" the problem was, in our whole time being sat there (from four thirty until ten to six!) neither of us had seen Rachel leaving the apartment. And neither of us had been paying very strict attention, which we were now regretting. "Maybe she left before we even got here."

"Didn't Prince Charming say he was going to text you at five?" Kurt picked up my phone which I happily snatched back off him.

"He said five and half five. You can't expect him to know everything, can you?" I rolled my eyes. "You could try calling Berry. If she left she'll pick up. If not she'll probably leave it to answer phone."

Kurt agreed and pulled his phone out of his pocket, drawing up Rachel's number and pressing dial. He lifted it to his ear and sat silently for a few seconds, obviously being left to the answering machine. "Nope, no good. Do you think she's still there if she's not picking up?"

"Could be devoting herself to Finn. You know what she's like."

"Maybe we could try the hospital. They might tell us if she's there," Kurt suddenly piped up, picking his phone back up in readiness to Google the hospitals number. I raised my eyebrows.

* * *

"Are you regretting talking me into this yet?" I hissed at Kurt, a few stairs ahead of him. We were whispering already and we were only on the second flight of stairs. He'd started moaning about the burning in his thighs only a few seconds ago.

"We're not going _in _there, Santana," Kurt whispered back and skipped up a few of the steps to catch up with me, "We're just going to listen at the door, see if we can hear anything going on. Sebastian said the walls are thin."

"Whatever, Lady Hummel," I sighed. We trudged up the stairs in silence, me checking each time we reached a new floor whether it was the right one. I couldn't remember which number they lived at so I was basing it off looks. And they all looked the same. "I think…it's this one."

"Well finally. Surely there's only one floor after this one. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the roof," Kurt whispered. "Which door?"

"It's this one!" my voice broke into being half whispering and half talking with my excitement. I beckoned him over and leant towards the door, resting my ear against the cool wood. For a second we both stood there with our breath held, just listening. Then I realised that beneath our weight, the door had started to open inwards. It wasn't shut properly.


	6. Criminals

_Back again. I've had an exam yesterday and this morning so aren't you guys lucky I'm updating :D._

_Hehe thank you again **Stargazer2000**, always fulfilling my need for praise! And thank you **stina88 **for the review and following (watch it! it may be going downhill .. but still). Thank you: **AKirsten74** for favouriting and following and **a****ngel-ali **for following. The continued support from everyone is much appreciated._

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Criminals**

"Kurt!" I snapped in a whisper at him. He straightened up immediately, noticing the door beginning to open. His eyes locked on mine, mirroring my panic.

"What are we going to do?" his voice was verging of hysterical. I raised a finger to my lips to hush him and crept back towards the crack in the door, trying to peer through it. All I could see was the big brown wall that was perpendicular to the TV I'd smashed when I'd last visited. Steadily, I pushed the door further open and stuck my head inside. "Santana!"

I ignored him and, seeing nothing out of the ordinary in the sitting room, opened the door fully and walked into the apartment. Kurt let out an agonised squeal behind me but seemed to decide following me was better than waiting for whatever fate would find him in the hallway. I halted. "Did you hear that?"

He looked at me with surprise. Apparently not. I followed the direction I'd heard the noise from, into the dreaded kitchen where I could immediately see the block of knives I'd noticed the last time I was there—missing the big beefy one with the sharp blade.

"No!" something suddenly wailed. My head snapped around. I rushed over and there, behind the dining table, was Rachel curled into a little ball with her hands covering her face, hair a mess all about her head. I could see straight away that her clothes were stained red, that her hands were coated in the shining stuff. "Don't hurt me!"

"Rachel," Kurt cried, rushing in behind me and sliding down next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and coaxed her into lifting her head.

"Oh, Santana," she wailed, stretching a bloody hand out to me. I bent away, appalled. "Sebastian's gone. Brody took him."

"What?" a cool shiver crept up my spine. The apartment was eerily quiet. I looked over my shoulder and only noticed then the trail of blood that started in the middle of the kitchen and continued into the living room, presumably leaving out of the door.

"I tried to stop him," she was shaking violently in Kurt's grip, "But he had a knife. I don't know where he's taking him. He's a psycho, Santana!"

"OK, OK," I winced as I took hold of the messy hand she'd offered me and with mine and Kurt's joint effort we managed to get her to her feet. I checked her over and, physically, she looked fine but that didn't explain the blood. We sat her down on one of the dining table chairs and then took seats opposite her. "Explain, from the beginning, what happened. No whimper-y stuff, I need to understand this."

"Alright…I turned up at two, like I said I would. We had our lunch and everything was going fine. Brody asked if I wanted to go to his bedroom and pick a film or something. I knew Sebastian was coming over shortly and everything but I couldn't exactly say that, so I went anyway. We were part way through Mamma Mia when Sebastian came in and started moaning about the awful movie. He disappeared somewhere—probably to his bedroom. When the movie finally finished at about five o'clock and I said I'd better be on my way but Brody said he didn't want me to go.

"Sebastian came back into the room about that time and was giving me weird looks. I think he wanted me to get out of there but Brody still wouldn't let me leave. He pulled my phone out of his back pocket. I asked him why he had it but he wouldn't say. He tapped around on it, drew up a text conversation and showed it to me:

"_Hey S, Finn's doing well. They said a few more days and he's out. Brody bought it too! The plans working, R xx_

_ "Hey S, I told Smythe to pass the message on but I doubt he will: I think tonight's the night! Be home in a bit to talk details, R xxx_

"He told us he knew what we were doing. Then he got angry. Very angry—but not at me, at Sebastian. He tried to defend himself but seriously, Brody's a maniac. Brody jumped at him, completely shocking the two of us and had him on the floor in a matter of seconds and was beating him to a pulp and then he was off into the kitchen to get the knife. Sebastian tried to surprise him with an attack in there but he kept checking on me, as well. His concentration wasn't there. So Brody knocked him down, stabbed him—I _think_, there was a hell of a lot of blood—and then started dragging him towards the door. He was like walking and punching at the same time.

"I tried to grab onto Sebastian, get him away from Brody but he shoved me backwards and onto the floor, throwing objects and abuse at me. He carried on back to the door with Sebastian and told me he'd be back for me. He said if I leave the apartment he's going to hunt me down. When I'd grabbed him, I swear Sebastian was as limp as anything.

"He's coming back for us, Santana! I swear if he finds you here, he's going to kill you."

I stared at her, then at the stains of blood on the carpet again, at the blood all over Rachel. It wasn't hers, it was Sebastian's. Just when everything seemed to be going my way—Brody was getting out of our lives, no more threats and Sebastian Smythe finally acting like a human being with _feelings_. Without any intention, I found myself whispering, "What are we going to do," under my breath.

Kurt and Rachel were watching me with nervous expressions but I ignored them and paced backwards and forwards.

"I think we should wait for Brody."

"What?" Rachel's voice shot up, demonstrating her impressive range. I winced. "Are you crazy? He's going to murder us!"

"He won't kill us. He'd definitely get in trouble for that. He's going to strike up some kind of deal: one to get you back, to shut us up and probably gain some amount of power over us and as a reward we get Sebastian and a sort of normal life back," I was surprised by how calm my voice sounded. "Kurt, get your phone ready to record the conversation. When we get Sebastian back we're going to the police."

Distantly, the three of us heard feet hammering up the apartment buildings staircase. There'd been one or two people rushing up them within the two hours we'd been waiting for Brody but, being nearly on the top floor, there was a limit to the amount of people passing. We tensed, straining our ears.

The creak of the door leading to the staircase echoed through my brain and the heavy footsteps resumed. This was Brody—it had to be.

I looked up at Rachel and Kurt, their hands tightly intertwined and Kurt's free arm wrapped around her shoulder. It hadn't been long before he'd moved away from me and round to Rachel's side of the table; she'd blubbered like a baby. Their eyes were locked on mine, a look of fear passing between us.

"Rach, you still there?" Brody called conversationally, as if he hadn't just violently abused his flatmate and was coming back to do the same to his girlfriend. He thudded through the living room and appeared in the doorway. For a second he took the scene in, perfectly silent. And then, "Oh, good, you brought some friends! Santana, good to see you. I was going to visit shortly but you've saved me the hassle."

I felt ill just being in the presence of him. He stepped closer to us and goosebumps broke out across my exposed arms.

"OK, ladies," he stationed himself at the end of the table, forcing himself into our view. "We all know the best way to settle this. I've got a deal for the three of you. Don't want to do as I say? Not a problem, I'll get someone to find you, hurt you, frame you for a crime…maybe kill you. Depends on how I'm feeling. You want little Sebby Smythe back, this is what you're gonna have to do:

"Rachel, babe. I know you wouldn't dream of leaving me over this but, just so we're clear, you're still my girlfriend and will be until I say so. And when I decide I don't want you to be, you might want to start worrying…

"Santana! Like I said, you'd be very _efficient _at what I do. But maybe you just want to do personal favours instead? I'll give you that choice, darlin'. And the three of you, so innocent and believable…I think you'd be very valuable in some, erm, future _transactions_. You'll do whatever I say you will. Effectively, I _own _you. OK?

"Do all that and I'll give you Sebastian back. But until then he remains under my lock and key. I'll let you know he's still breathing though, don't worry. I'm not that cruel.

"If I hear at all that you're trying to betray me, tell anyone about our little arrangement, derail me somehow then be warned: I stop at nothing. You should know that by now."

I stared at the two across from me. Kurt had buried his face within the masses of Rachel's dirty hair a few minutes ago and Rachel was focusing on me, though I'm not sure how much she was seeing—her eyes had become misty with tears.

As Brody spoke he'd moved around the room and now lingered behind me, his breath tickling the back of my neck and making me want to itch and tear at the skin there. His breath smelt like blood, if it was possible. Sickly and metallic, like death. I swallowed, trying to breathe without taking in any of the scent, "Can we leave?"

"Oh, sorry, sweetie. Did I not dismiss you? Yes, feel free to go. I'll come over to see you, Rachel," he said to her but winked at me. I swallowed again but every time I did it my throat still came up raw. "Have a nice night, guys."

He waved sadistically at us as we left, Rachel and Kurt trying to support each other as best they could without their legs giving out from the weight of their deteriorating lives crashing down onto their shoulders and forcing them to the floor. I walked ahead of them, engineered to be unable to share my sadness with other human beings.

We trudged out of the apartment and I held the door open for the other two, closing it once they were in the hall and averting my eyes from the stained path of blood leading from the kitchen. Brody would probably only clean it up when he wanted to sell the place on—it was currently a lovely souvenir of him getting everything he wanted.

I opened the door to the giant staircase and my breath caught in my throat, bile rising up and trying to break out. Again, I swallowed and managed to keep the sickness back but I could feel the stinging in my eyes: I was going to start crying.

"Oh, my God," Rachel shrieked and rushed away from the door, dragging Kurt and I by our elbows. Every single step was coated with sticky shining blood in puddles, leaving no doubt in my mind that Sebastian had an uncomfortable exit from the building.

As we got into the elevator I wasn't even contemplating my phobia that it could easily break down on us and trap us in there for hours: there was no way in hell I was going down those stairs. But I hoped, for Sebastian's sake, that Brody was sloppy enough to leave the horrific sight in place. If someone told the police we wouldn't have to go through whatever hell the next few weeks were bound to bring.

When we got back to the apartment Rachel and Kurt quickly departed to their bedrooms, got changed and then Rachel reappeared a few minutes later and disappeared into Kurt's room. She didn't come back out.

I ghosted around the living room but found myself unable to settle down on the sofa with the knowledge that if today had gone differently Sebastian would be bedding down there tonight. I wished that I could share my grief with other people—it was so unhealthily to shut down and deal with it the way I did and I knew it but I couldn't force myself to join the other two in Kurt's bedroom. However at the same time I was unable to go to bed by myself because I knew that as soon as I closed my eyes everything about today would come rushing back. I'd see Brody, so malicious in his happiness. I'd see Sebastian.

Despite not having been the one to see him, I could picture Sebastian perfectly: Brody grabbing him by the neck and dragging him, stained all over in blood. I mentally shook the image away and fished my iPhone out of my pocket, ready to lose myself in the music.

But when I unlocked it, I had a text message. I held my breath as I opened it: unknown number. It was a video message.

"_Santana. Help me, please. Brody's got all these guys with him—ones I've never seen before; they're not from the agency. They're hurting me. I…I know you can do it. Help me."_

_ "That's not what we said."_

And then the dialogue momentarily finished and two huge guys appeared on screen. One wrenched Sebastian's arms behind his back and the other started hitting him repeatedly in the face, the stomach and then he got his feet involved. It didn't look like Sebastian was offering much resistance: the guy holding his arms was unnecessarily. When they were done they vanished from sight.

In the seconds that Sebastian was alone and staring forlornly at the camera, I couldn't comprehend how quickly he'd become so _skinny _looking. He'd never been bulky but he looked starved, his cheekbones sharp. But maybe they just looked sharp from the shadows of bruises lined across his face.

"_Shall we redo it? He didn't say it right."_

_ "No, leave it. This is perfect."_

Unmistakably that last line was Brody, his sadistic voice energised by the violence taking place. The video cut off and left me with an image of Sebastian's defeated face as he stared into the lens, a big play button hanging in the centre. I clicked away from it and shoved my phone as far away from me as I could without moving.

"Shall we wake her?" Rachel's telltale irritating squeak of a voice was surprisingly quiet for how close she was—I could feel her hair tickling my arm.

"No, leave her. She probably didn't get to sleep until very late last night," Kurt replied and Rachel's hair disappeared. Slowly, I opened my eyes and made a move to sit up. Nope, that wasn't going to happen; my back groaned in agony at my attempts. I was lying slumped on the sofa, not even horizontally. I couldn't remember when I'd finally fallen asleep.

"Oh, hey sleepyhead," Rachel said. She was surprisingly chipper considering what happened yesterday. "We've sorted you out some food. Pancakes!"

I forced myself to my feet and stretched out, my back cracking angrily. On the table sat three plates stacked high with pancakes oozing with golden syrup and a delicate handful of blueberry's sprinkled on top. I could almost fool myself it was any old Saturday.

We sat down together and tucked in. Usually Kurt and Rachel's conversation over weekend breakfast was unstoppable: chatting back and forth so quickly that I could hardly understand but today silence clung to us like a damp cloth and was just as suffocating.

"So, how's Blaine?" I said the only words that were surfacing within my brain. Typical: nothing to talk about, I'll be rude. Kurt glanced up from his plate quickly before returning his eyes to his pancakes, staring at them so intently it was as if they were whispering to him the meaning of life. "Don't play dumb Hummel. I've seen your phone bill."

Rachel simply shrugged when he looked at her; clearly she had been paying attention after all. Kurt sighed. "OK, fine. Things are fine. We met up the other month and things were just like they used to be."

"But…?" I prompted—there was always a but.

"But long distance relationships don't work so we're not putting any labels on anything," Kurt was breathing deeply. He didn't get annoyed often…had I found the one thing that got him worked up? No surprise, Blaine was the person who managed to bring out lots of things in Kurt. "We're not going to try to resist each other whenever we meet but we're allowed to see other people."

"An open relationship! Lady Hummel, I'd have never thought it," I laughed and offered him my blueberries.

"Well, how sweet is this," a voice startled the three of us. We looked around and there in the open doorway stood Brody. The first thing that occurred to me was that he'd managed to slide the door silently out of its place. The second was that he had a key. "Any spares?"

His eyes found Rachel's and he looked at her expectantly. "Oh, you can share mine, honey."

He squeezed her shoulder and sat down beside her, pulling the plate over to sit before himself and began eating them with his hands. Rachel looked disgusted and put her cutlery on the edge of the plate. "OK, guys—you two. I've got some stuff I need to give a NYADA student and I'm not allowed on campus anymore so I need one of you to deliver."

"I'll do it," Kurt said quickly, eyeing how closely Brody was sat to his best friend.

"Awesome," he beamed at Kurt, the food in his mouth showing as he sloppily ate Rachel's pancakes, "Knew you guys would understand. Oh, Rachel and Santana. Are you free today?"

"No," I didn't look up from my food, knowing the disgusting sight that would greet me across the table.

"I think you are. See ladies, I'm in a bit of debt right now and I haven't really got any money so I need you two to help me get some. You're going to have to steal something. Something pretty expensive."

"Can you tell it's me?" Rachel asked, staring into the mirror and applying a bit more of our mask-like make up. I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her so she was face on to me and looked her up and down. She had short blonde hair (a wig, obviously) stopping at the chin and blue eyes, her make up practically managing to change her face shape. She'd routed right to the back of her cupboard to find us some clothes we'd never wear to go with our new looks. "You look so much more different than I do."

I rolled my eyes and reached my hand up to my red hair, coming a little below the shoulders in huge curls. She looked at me nervously. "Rachel, relax. If you go all crazy they're going to guess something's up. Now get your huge fluffy coat and lets go."

Rachel sighed but pulled the cream coat on, becoming more of a sheep than a human and led the way from her bedroom. Brody sat on the couch and looked up as we emerged. "Well, ladies. What a transformation."

I turned away from him and made for the door, feeling like a clown in my disguise. Once on the sidewalk, Brody quickly found us a cab and gave the driver our destination before sitting back and snaking an arm around both of our shoulders. I tried to catch Rachel's eye but she was staring out of the window, biting her lip.

When we finally got to the jewellers, we loaded out of the taxi and Brody chivalrously paid the bill. "OK, girls. Go in there, do your thing. I'll be in that café over there with your change of clothes. You better move quickly 'cause they'll probably check in there so you'll have to change fast."

We nodded and watched him cross the road and go inside the café before turning to each other. Rachel's face creased. "Hold it together, Berry. We need to do this, OK? If we don't we'll end up in jail. Don't cry—it'll ruin your mask."

"No pressure," Rachel said weakly, turning to look at the daunting building of Tiffany & Co. "We don't look too overdone, do we? If our make ups too much they'll remember us for sure."

"We look fine. I'm good at make up. Stop trying to make excuses for not going in there," I gave her hairy back a push towards the door but she wouldn't budge, her eyes wide and round.

"It's just…this isn't the way it was supposed to be. Kurt took me for breakfast at Tiffany's…I'm not supposed to be stealing from it," she started shaking her head quickly from side to side, "Oh, God."

"Rachel, snap out of it!" I clicked my fingers together before her face and she blinked violently. "OK, if you fall apart we're going to prison. So hold it together 'til we're in the clear, got it? I'll do the talking, you just get the earrings."

She nodded, the haze now gone from her eyes. I linked my arm with hers and marched her towards the doors. No going back now—we could easily be girls whose daddies let them buy things at Tiffany's.

Inside it was as grand as everyone said it was. Everything gleamed with cleanliness and order, the lights hanging low from the ceiling illuminating the diamonds that waited within their cases, a single ring alone probably worth more than our apartment. With the furniture included.

We casually treaded through the store. I tapped Rachel and nodded at a cabinet to our right, where the jewellery was calling to us. She allowed me to lead her over and a man came to us and stood behind the glass cabinets. "Anything I can help you with, ladies?"

"We're interested in a pair of earrings," I explained, leaning onto the glass before me. I smiled back at him and examined the contents of the case. "Something with a few diamonds I think."

"Well, we don't have a shortage of those," he laughed good naturedly, "Just white diamonds or do you want some coloured stones in there, too?"

"Hmm," I looked down once more, "The ones with the blue on them are nice…but I don't think they're your colour, hon."

Rachel managed to pull an upset expression onto her face. The man laughed again, "I think white alone would compliment your skin tone nicely."

"They're lovely," I pointed at some bling-tastic diamond earrings. The other two leant towards them and made sounds of agreement. "Let's see them."

He unlocked the cabinet, going through all the tedious stages of pulling on his shiny gloves before finally pulling them out and showing them to us. I held them up against Rachel's lobes and smiled. "They look great on you," the salesman added.

"Can I look at them in better lighting over by the window?" Rachel asked, taking them into her hands and flashing her own dazzling smile at him.

"Sure," he said and she moved away from us. I caught a man and a women looking at the jewellery glancing at me and the salesman. Perfect. "So, how are you doing?"

As he spoke the male in the couple decided that the salesman's chitchat wasn't worth him waiting. "Excuse me, can we have some assistance. We're interested in a ring."

"Of course," the man behind the cabinet smiled at the one beside me and told me, "One moment."

With his attention occupied, I walked steadily over to Rachel and linked my arm through hers. "Got them?"

"In my pocket," she whispered so quietly I almost didn't hear. And with that, we made our way out of the shop at a casual browsing pace, so we didn't look suspicious. As soon we were outside we both sighed deeply with relief and quickly darted through gaps in the traffic, across the street to where Brody waited in the small café with our real clothes and face wipes.

He stood up from his little two seater table as soon as we appeared in the doorway with the backpack in his hand. We rushed over, "Be quick," he snapped at us, "They're going to notice very soon."


	7. Revelation

_Wow sorry its taken me so long to get this out and this its so SHORT, I've had a lot of exams this week. Last one on tuesday though woo._

_Thank you very much **the-batman-games **for following the story and thank you **Stargazer2000**, **Ridley Duchannes Malfoy Ride **and **pattyholdbrok **for the lovely reviews, hearing your thoughts is really encouraging for me!_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Revelation**

I tugged my jeans up and struggled to do the zipper and button up in a hurry, bashing my elbow against the toilet cubicle walls as I did so. Rachel called from the one beside me, "You OK?"

"Fine," I grunted back, finding one of the face wipes and vigorously rubbing at my skin. I pulled it away for inspection and it was thick with orange filth. I'd need another few before I was anywhere near clean. My wig slid off my head because of how angrily I was rubbing at my skin and I picked it up, shoving it deep inside the bag along with the clothes I'd just changed out of. "OK, I think I'm done. I'm going to check in the mirror."

"Me too," was Rachel's response and we simultaneously unlocked the doors and stepped into the main area of the bathroom, a huge mirror hung on the wall over a long row of sinks. In my reflection I looked fine—my skin was a little red due to how viscously I'd scrubbed at my face but besides that I was normal. I glanced at Rachel to check she'd cleaned herself off as well. Somehow she'd managed to avoid having a red face but her eyes were slightly puffy, as though she'd been crying. She'd managed to stop if she had. Maybe the contacts had irritated her eyes.

I shouldered the bag and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly before using it to drag her behind me out of the toilets. Brody was stood outside the door waiting for us when we came out. "You took your time, I said be quick."

"Whatever, donkey face. We went as fast as we could," I snapped back. I continued to pull Rachel along, out of the café and into the street. With the traffic lights on red, I glanced inside the waiting vehicles for a vacant taxi. "There!"

Brody followed my gaze and wove in and out of the cars, leaving a path behind for us to follow. He tapped on the window then opened the door and held it while the two of us got in. "Thanks for this."

"I'm on my way to pick someone up!" the angry cabbie snapped at us. "Get out."

"We don't mind, take us wherever you're going and we'll pay you," I reasoned. He frowned at me in disbelief. "Really."

"OK then…"

The lights turned green and the cars inched forwards as a unit, taking us away from the sight of our crime. I turned and looked out of the window, only allowing myself now to look at the Tiffany's. On the sidewalk the employees were gathered, a few talking to a uniformed cop whose car was perched on the curb, its lights still flashing.

A guilty twinge settled in the pit of my stomach and I turned back to face the road ahead, wanting more than anything never to see Brody Weston ever again.

"Girls," he said in a hushed voice, glancing at the cab driver. "Your fingerprints won't be on the city system so they won't be able to track it back to you and your disguises were stellar so any CCTV won't make the link, either. Don't feel guilty about this. Don't even think about it, really."

Rachel stared at him with her Bambi eyes wide. I looked away, unable to stomach her feeding off his corrupt speech like a child would a parent.

"But just remember, I have the proof you've done it. A friends been interested in the pair of you and I told him you'd do him a…_favour_."

* * *

"_I know you…you were in it with him. He told me everything. I can't believe you'd do that to me Santana. Doesn't our history mean anything to you? It sure sounded like it did when we spent the day together. But hey, that was just part of the plan wasn't it?"_

Sebastian was sat back on the chair in front of the camera. This time there was no one to restrain him but a rope tied around his waist. I couldn't see his hands but I guessed that they were tied behind his back.

He looked so much worse than last time. No longer was he bruised—his whole face was a purple-grey colour to the extent that I had to wonder whether he was ill. His top was stained a brown-red shade and looked as though it was so dry it was ready to crumble off.

But his appearance wasn't the worrying thing. In his eyes, even through the poor quality recording, I could see that they had no life to them. Any sense of hope had somehow died but a twinkle of something was still in there, as though he was getting some satisfaction out of the fact I'd see this.

"_Now I know the truth, I can't imagine that you'll come get me. You deserve whatever you get from him—he's not the sort of guy you trust. But still, how can you sleep at night knowing you've done this to someone? Help me, please. If you ever felt anything for me at all. _Ever."

Just before the video ended, the camera was lifted upwards off whatever it was resting on and a large window could be seen in the background. I paused the video quickly and zoomed in as far as I could without the bad quality getting even worse. Despite the awful picture, there was no denying it—wherever they were, it was opposite Sisters.

* * *

The door slid open and Kurt walked into the apartment. He blew out a loud sigh, "Well, I'm glad that day is over with. Sorting out Brody's drug dealing—imagine!"

"God," I boggled my eyes at Rachel, "I can't imagine much worse than that. _Oh wait_. We robbed a Tiffany's today and now Brody wants to be our pimp."

"What?" the air Kurt just exhaled caught in his throat and he hurried over to us, staring at Rachel; of course, he was concerned about her not me.

"He wants us to do rude things with a man so he can earn money," Rachel said softly.

"He can't do that!" Kurt cried, "Can't we go to the police? We've got the evidence of Brody threatening us on my phone."

"Lady Hummel, if we do that he's still got Sebastian," I said, unable to stop the words I'd heard from Sebastian's lips earlier from surfacing into my thoughts. "He'll probably kill him to get back at us for it. Or he'll manage to use him to stop the police touching him. They're weird about psychos."

"But the police can sort everything out…" Rachel mumbled.

"Guys, shut up about the police. Look at this." Thinking about what Sebastian had said reminded me of what I'd seen in the video. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed them the screen-cap that I'd taken when I'd managed to pause the video. They both stared at it with faltering smiles, unsure of what they were seeing. "OK, you don't get it. I'll show you what it's from."

I found the video from which I'd taken it and pressed play, turning it back around so they could see it. I listened to his words and managed to suppress my emotions from clouding my face, having had the whole day to brush them away. They sat in silence watching the video that Brody had sent me of Sebastian, expressions of deepening horror creeping onto their faces. Once it was over, Kurt pulled away, "How many things like this has he sent you?"

"I don't know…a few. But we know where he is!" I put my phone away, brushing away his concern and turned to face the other two with anticipation, "We can do it ourselves."

"OK," Rachel suddenly bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder. I furrowed my brow at her…had I not just given her good news? Why was she so worried? "I hope you don't mind but I thought we needed protection."

I glared at her—what did she think we were; some group of wimpy girls? OK, well maybe those two. A second later, as if cued by Rachel's words, and to be honest I wouldn't put it past them, the door to the apartment slid open once more and this time, revealing a tanned man with a Mohawk, "Looking good, San."


	8. Breaking In

_I'm sorry these are becoming so short! short but regular hopefully.._

_Thank you **leamismyqueen** for favouriting and following and **Stargazer2000 **and **pattyholdbrok **for your reviews again, I love hearing your feedback!_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Breaking In**

"Do I really have to be there the whole day?" Rachel whined. Puck ran his hand across the top of his Mohawk in annoyance. It was almost amusing how much she was wearing him down—with the time they'd been apart he'd lost the ability that we all had to filter out her irritating remarks.

"Yes," he pronounced, "If you're not, why would you randomly go over and be calling him?"

"I suppose…" she said dejectedly.

"Look, Rach," I said, going for the kinder approach. "We understand you don't want to spend time with him but he probably won't even be there the whole time. And we'll need some way to get rid of him and his little gang mates when we find the place."

"OK, so," she furrowed her brow, "I say 'Finn's come back to get revenge and is going to burn the place down with me in it'?"

"Something like that, yeah…," I was beginning to doubt her acting abilities, even though she was attending NYADA to 'refine' her talent. She smiled with satisfaction and slipped her phone out of her pocket to make to call proposing the idea of spending the day with him to Brody. Like he'd say no; he had some weird obsession with the girl.

She was talking too loud and laughing enthusiastically. I mimed putting my fingers in my ears and she got the picture, getting up from the sofa and disappearing into her bedroom. I shook my head at Puck.

"So, Sebastian," Puck said after a second. "Still the same one—Smythe?"

"Yup," I nodded, kicking my shoes off and leaning back into the cushions of the sofa. Sometimes it was nice to feel the couch embracing me, even if it reminded me of the fact very few _people _would do the same thing. But whose fault was that? "Your old friend."

"Funny," he chuckled humourlessly. "Can I ask why you're willing to risk your life for this guy? He was never anything but a jerk. It doesn't sound like that's changed."

I closed my eyes, shaking my head slowly. It was bad enough to hear myself thinking it, but when other people said it I realised how pathetic I seemed. "You never knew him like I did. And I know that same guy is still in there, he just hides it well. I can understand his need to build walls against people."

"But Santana, you're in this to begin with because he's a _bad guy_," Puck pronounced the words in a dark whisper. "What kind of person does prostitution?"

"Don't discriminate against him because he's a different calibre of 'bad guy' to you."

"At least I've grown out of it."

* * *

"OK, I'll text you when I need you to call him, Rach," I reminded her as we crowded at the door, jackets zipped up high. Of course, Puck didn't need a jacket—a good reason was needed for him to cover up his 'awesome guns'. "Get out of there immediately. It won't take them long to get there. And don't come back here, right? You and Kurt go somewhere else."

She nodded quickly and linked her arm through Kurt's, dragging him purposefully out of the doorway and round the corner where they disappeared from sight. Puck looked at me hesitantly. "You want to link arms as well?"

"Shut up, Puckerman," I snarled and put a hand on his back, pushing him forwards in the direction Rachel had just vanished. Once in the hallway, I locked the door after myself. There wasn't much point to it, though—when Brody found out Rachel was lying this would be the first place he'd come and he had his own key to get in. "Sisters is a walking distance from here, we don't need a cab."

"Great, cause I didn't bring any money with me," he laughed and buried his hands in his pockets. We walked closely side by side so that we didn't lose each other on the crowded sidewalk as we walked the few streets that I had gone down only a few nights ago.

It was ridiculous to think that the last time I'd come this way, I'd been on my way to meet Brody at the pub to talk about how I was going to repay him for my little stunt only for our business talk to be interrupted by Sebastian. Now it was his life hanging in the balance.

We were finally there, on the same street and I could see the sign for Sisters just a little way down the sidewalk. In the daylight, the sign was unlit but still looked just as tacky. I looked across the street from it, "Hmm. That fancy office block doesn't look like its home to a psychopath and his gang."

"There's an alley," Puck suddenly said, speeding off in the direction of the path. I had to half-run to keep up with him but when I was back at his side, I could see the small gap between Sisters and the building beside it. We stepped into the space and found ourselves in a small cross roads, through which I could see the paused traffic of another New York street.

"Look at that!" I pointed towards a rundown looking factory that stood behind Sisters. A few of the large windows had been boarded up but most of them were left unhidden, holes most likely made by rocks puncturing the glass. The bricks were so dusty that at some places it could be seen that it used to be a dark brown colour but now it was mostly grey. "That definitely looks dodgy."

"Keep your voice down!" he snapped in a whisper. "We can't just march in the front entrance, let's see if there's a fire escape or something."

I followed him around the back of the creepy looking building and, a few feet above us, a fragile looking fire escape was assembled. Before I could protest, Puck's arms were around my legs and he was lifting me into the air. I held back the yelp that bubbled into my throat, keeping in mind his command to be silent and latched onto the edge of the flat part of the fire escape.

With his help, it didn't take much to have me on the fire escape. Unsteadily, I got to my feet and began moving in the direction of the first rusty ladder when suddenly behind me there was a loud creak. I turned in horror to find Puck clinging to the edge of the fire escape. Deep wrinkles formed on his face and he gritted his teeth in exertion, using all of his upper body strength to try and lift himself onto the fire escape. I stood still where I was—how was I supposed to help him up? It was a stupid idea of his to try that, anyway.

But it turned out he didn't need my help and managed to heave his heavy body onto the weak frame of the fire escape. Slowly, he got to his feet and stretched out to his full height. He put a foot forwards and steadily leant his weight onto it—he looked like Bambi learning to walk. I laughed quietly and grabbed his hand, pulling him after me up to where the ladder was.

I gripped on and started the vertical climb upwards, onto the next floor of the fire escape. I wrinkled my nose as my hand came away from the ladder covered in flaking black paint and orange rust but all I could do was keep moving upwards, as Puck was quickly climbing up to where I'd stopped.

We scrambled up a few floors, peeping in through the big rectangular windows of each level to see if there was anything inside. Once, when we looked in, there was a group of tough looking guys sat around together looking bored. We quickly leant away from the window. "Those are the guys who are helping Brody. A few of them were in his videos."

Puck nodded but needn't tell me he could guess as much by looking at them. We continued the upwards climb and checked the next floor. After what we'd seen downstairs, we were more cautious this time and luckily so—through the window, we could see Brody sat on the opposing window ledge with his phone in his hand.

I looked away from him and around the room. There, on the floor, lay Sebastian. His legs were still bent at the knee, forming half of a square, where the chair he'd sat on must have shaped them. His hands were tied behind his back and around the edges of the fraying rope I could see angry red grazes and gashes. All around him on the floor bits of broken wood lay in disarray. It must've been the stool he was sat on, broken.

Swallowing heavily, I pulled myself from the window before Brody could look up and catch me. I avoided Puck's anxious gaze and pulled my phone from my pocket.

_OK, Rach we've found him. Make the call._

I waited a few seconds until through the broken glass of the deteriorating window; a shrill ringing noise could be heard. "Hello?"

Just hearing the sound of his voice made me want to attack him. He had no right to put me and my friends through all of this crap yet there he was.

"Finn?" he sounded surprised—Finn was out of the hospital already? "Revenge. Oh wow, he needs a reality check. I'll be there in a minute, babe. If my boys get there before me, don't be afraid of them. They won't touch you."

Almost as soon as he said the last sentence there were heavy footsteps quickly leaving the room in which Sebastian was lying…sleeping? Through the cracks of the building we could hear Brody creaking down some stairs and into the room below us.

"Boys," his voice wafted up to us through the window below, "I've got something exciting for you. Come along with me."

On the weak floor a hundred weighty footsteps broke out, hammering down yet more stairs. I looked up Puck and whispered, "Think he's taken them all?"

"We're going to have to assume he has," Puck whispered back when a buzz of voices arose from a distance—on the ground at the front of the building. "How are we going to get in there, will you fit through the gap in the window?"

I raised my eyebrow at him wondering that was supposed to be some form of flattery; the hole in the window would probably fit my leg through it, maybe not even that. I looked around us and noticed a loose brick in the wall—well, not one, there were a lot of loose bricks. I picked it up and stood as far away from the window as I could before throwing the brick at it. The brick shot a hole through the glass and thunked to the floor somewhere behind it.

Cracks broke out across the frail glass and it slipped from its frame like water falling from a waterfall, crashing against the flooring and breaking into tiny diamonds. Like the earrings from Tiffany.

I pushed the thought away and, making sure to avoid any leftover bits of sharp glass in the window frame, stepped into the room. Beneath my boots the glass crunched but not even the louder noises had stirred Sebastian from his sleep.

I ran over to him and heard the glass being ground to tiny grains as Puck stepped in after me. Puck lingered over my shoulder as I struggled with the knot that held Sebastian's hands together. Another looser loop was hanging from his neck and I didn't even stop to imagine what that could've been there for. "Here," Puck suddenly said, his voice so loud in the silence that I jumped. He offered me a tiny sharp blade, "Use this."

I took the knife from his hands and dragged it backwards and forwards across the rough ropes that bound Sebastian. When I finally broke through, his arms slumped to the ground behind him. Taking him by the shoulders, I tried to drag him to his feet. "Look, Puck. He's like six foot or something. Help me."

And with our joint effort we managed to get the unconscious boy to his feet. I pulled one of Sebastian's arms round my shoulders and the other hung over Puck's so that Sebastian was being dragged lopsided, his foot on my side dragging against the ground but there was no other way we could do it unless Puck carried him completely—which I wasn't going to ask of him, he didn't even like Sebastian. Who knew why he'd agreed to come. It was all very well Puck asking me why I was willing to risk my life to come find him but why was _he_.

As we manoeuvred uneasily down the staircase, Puck half dragging Sebastian after him—something he didn't seem very concerned by—because I couldn't hold the weight so well, I avoided looking at Sebastian's face. I'd already had to look at what Brody had done to him through the sadistic videos but the drastic change of his appearance from one to the next was enough to convince me that he'd be even worse now. I was going to have to take him to the hospital. But after my last time in the hospital, I really didn't want to. Anyone could get into your room in a hospital—Brody did.

Once we were back outside the building, Puck dropped Sebastian to the floor and put his hands on his hips. "We're going to look so weird dragging this guy down the street."

Instantly, I reached out and managed to wedge my hands under Sebastian's head before it could hit the floor and cause anymore damage. Suddenly his eyes flew open and I found myself staring at him, as much as I'd been trying to avoid it.

Even with his eyes open he still managed to look unconscious, any trace of life dimmed from his usually teasing eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but his eyes moved away from me and flicked to Puck behind me. When he spoke his voice was a scratched whisper, hardly audible. "What is he doing here."


	9. Accusations

_Woo sorry this has taken so long to get out, its been nice weather in the UK so I've been outside enjoying it!_

_Thank you so much: **Stargazer2000** for another of your lovely reviews; **Eirlys1 **for your review an follow, it's lovely to see your opinion of the fic and thank you **Brave Eagles **for favouriting and following. _

_The support is really encouraging so thank you everyone who has!_

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Accusations**

"Sebastian," I said, blinking quickly against the stinging feeling building up in my eyes. "We don't have time for this."

As if my words were a cue, Puck took hold of Sebastian once again and lifted him to his feet, no longer concerned with how weird we'd look, just that we got out of there. Sebastian made a noise of complaint but didn't have the strength to knock Puck off him. I rushed forwards to support Sebastian's right side again and we hurried down the alleyway beside Sisters for fear that Brody might've already got to his apartment and found out it was all a lie.

Running as fast as we could with Sebastian shared between us, we made our way down the street. Someone glanced at us and Puck gave me a pointed look. "Puck, its New York. They're used to seeing weird stuff."

"Where are we going to go?" Sebastian moaned from between us, his head lolling slightly with his lack of strength, "He's got a key to your apartment."

"Don't worry, we've booked a room in a hotel fairly near," I soothed him, searching down the street to see if I could point it out but we were still too far away. As continued down the streets, pushing through the crowds but going ignored for the most part, my mind drifted and I couldn't help thinking about Rachel and Kurt. If they got caught it would be the end of them.

* * *

"Brody, you have to help me! I stayed at your house and waited for you like you said and ordered a pizza. I answered the door thinking it was the delivery and Finn's here!" Rachel squealed down the phone that she was grasping tightly in her hand. Kurt stood a short distance away from her, watching in fascination—he hadn't seen Rachel in her element for a while and she'd clearly improved as an actress.

"Finn?" Brody asked, something catching his voice. Suspicion—or surprise; should Finn be out of the hospital by now?

"He said he's going to burn down the apartment with me inside it—as revenge!"

"Revenge. Oh wow, he needs a reality check. I'll be there in a minute, babe. If my boys get there before me, don't be afraid of them. they won't touch you."

"Oh, Brody, thank you! Be quick!" Rachel snapped out quickly in hysteria and cancelled the call, her features quickly rearranging themselves into concern. "We have to get out of here, Kurt."

"OK, let me put my jacket on," he said, lifting his coat off the sofa where he'd draped it and shrugging it onto his shoulders. Suddenly, from the street below the sound of loud voices and screeching tires floated up to the apartment. In horror, Rachel raced to a window and stared down at the streets where a group of black cars were parked along the curb, tattooed men with necks as wide as their heads spilling out of them and walking in the direction of the apartment building. "They're here already?"

"Brody said his 'boys' might get here first…he must've had some of them doing something near us," Rachel's eyes were wide and she bit her lip, eyes darting around the room. The buzzer for the door went off and there was the sound of men talking amongst each other before it cut off. Obviously they'd realised 'Finn' wasn't going to buzz them up.

"Quick, Rachel!" Kurt said, unlocking a pair of French doors that led to a balcony and pushing them open. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shut the doors behind them. She stared at him in confusion as he lifted a leg over the balcony railings, followed by the other. Suddenly he dropped. Rachel rushed to the edge of the balcony to check he hadn't landed on the concrete far below and saw him standing on a flat ledge of the apartment's fire escape. She felt relief surge through her in waves and followed after him, thankful that the fire escape was round the back of the building so any later arrivals of Brody's wouldn't see them.

They scrambled down in a hurry, aware that as soon as Brody's gang had broken into the building it wouldn't take them long to get inside Brody's apartment and discover that they'd taken the fire escape down. Rachel could only pray that they thought Finn heard her make the phone call and assumed he'd tried to kidnap her…But when they checked the hospital it wouldn't take long to realise he was still in there and couldn't have possibly been at Brody's apartment. Maybe Rachel could get him out.

Kurt jumped from the last ledge and landed on the floor with a grunt, squinting as he looked up to Rachel. She winced before launching herself off the fire escape after him and managed to land safely on the ground. Kurt snatched up her hand and the two of them ran down the back street that they found themselves in, ignoring the scrabbling of rats and pigeons as they went. Ahead of them, another busy road was visible and they sped up, breath heavy.

When they came out at the end of the alleyway, they came to a stop, looking around to see where they were in correlation to the hotel that Santana booked. Kurt hailed a cab and rushed Rachel inside it.

* * *

I kicked the door shut behind me as we struggled into the hotel room, taking a few more wobbly steps forwards before Puck shoved Sebastian down onto the bed and turned to face me with crossed arms and a grumpy expression. "What?"

"OK, so I helped you save lover-boy. What now? Rachel and Kurt are coming here and Brody's going to be on a mad rampage when he founds out what we've done."

"Can you leave for a minute? Go look for Rachel and Kurt or something," I suggested, giving him an unsuccessful push in the direction of the door. He raised an eyebrow at me, glanced at Sebastian and left. I knew what he was thinking about me and Sebastian but no longer did I care. Having Sebastian taken from me made me realise how hard it would be to lose him _again_.

With Puck gone I suddenly felt more able to breathe and went to sit beside Sebastian's flopped body on the bed. I looked at him and found his eyes were already on me. "Why have you got Puck involved in all of this?"

"I didn't. Rachel called him. But she was right to—I couldn't have dragged you all this way by myself. I was barely helping him as it was," I confessed, trying to reach for his hand but he pulled it out of my reach.

"For some reason I don't believe you, Santana," he said slowly, voice devoid of any of his usual character. "You know he won't leave now. And you also know that he'd never choose to help me if he didn't think he'd get anything out of it. What do you suppose he's here for?"

I could tell his question was rhetorical and decided to leave it. Sebastian was no good in this kind of mood. "I promise I didn't call him. I haven't seen him since high school and haven't wanted to."

He considered my words in silence, staring up at me from where he was lying so helplessly on the bed. I pulled another pillow lower, placing it beside Sebastian's, and lay down next to him, looking back in those empty eyes. Seeing him so broken made me feel like I needed to do something to help…but what? I couldn't do anything, I wasn't a nurse and there was no way he was going to the hospital. With Rachel's lie about Finn, Brody was going to be visiting there anyway.

"Sebastian…after all we've been through, I know we're more than complicated." I looked away from him as I spoke, unable to wait for his reaction to my words. "But what did you think coming back into my life was going to do? Each time I see you I fall for you. And this is no different."

"You're telling me you want to be with me?" he asked and, from his tone of voice, I had no idea what emotions he was feeling. I snagged a look at his face but it was as blank as ever.

"I think so."

"I don't believe you. I know some of things I did to you when we were younger weren't nice but we're adults now and this is juvenile. I'm not going to let you and Puck wreck my emotions while Brody tries to kill me, OK? So leave it alone."

I stared at him. Where had this suddenly come from? Only a few days ago he'd taken me to the zoo in, what I'd assumed, an attempt to win me over…now it had worked he was no longer interested? If only Rachel hadn't called Puck. "No, I promise."

"Be quiet, Santana," he said and only then did I realise that he'd suddenly begun calling me by my full name and not his irritating nickname 'San'. "And call Puck back in."

"Fine," I sat up as I spoke but couldn't help remaining where I was a few seconds longer, just to look at him. Even in his crumpled state he was still far more intriguing to me than Puckerman ever was.

Suddenly, the hotel room door was thrown open and a shakey Rachel and Kurt rushed inside, followed by Puck. The two of them huddled closely together, eyes still wide with shock and they grew even larger still when they saw Sebastian.

"So, step one complete," I said, using all my effort to keep my eyes off Sebastian. "What next?"

"We have to call the police," Kurt said quickly, his phone suddenly in his hand, "I'll play them the evidence on here and they can lock him up."

"No…," Sebastian groaned from beside me.

All eyes set on him, confusion setting in after a moment of silence. I reached for his hand but he moved it away again, "What?"

"You can't go to the police."

"But Sebastian, that's been the plan all along—if we weren't going to be able to do it, why didn't you say?" Rachel squeaked in bewilderment. Her eyes were so strained now that she looked close to breaking point. Poor Berry wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. Neither were any of us, really. "We _have _to tell them, we can't do this ourselves. He's going to kill us!"

"You think Brody doesn't know how to work the police? How to strike up a bargain with them: 'I'll monitor this other gang for you if you leave me alone'. And even if he doesn't, he's probably more powerful than the police. Good is never stronger than evil. I'll see if I can sort him out, he's got a soft spot for his favourite bro."

"He has a point, the police are pretty useless," Kurt chimed in and earned himself a murderous glare from Rachel.

"No way, Kurt. We have to go to the police!"

"I've got a really bad headache. Can someone do something about her?" Sebastian grunted, pulling the pillow from where I'd lain and flattening it to his ears.

"Come on guys, let's go," Puck sighed and put a hand against Rachel's back to usher her out of the door, followed by Kurt.

I lingered for a second, eyes combing over his broken body. Did he need medical attention? He could easily be seriously malnourished…but judging by how broken the chair he'd been sat on was, perhaps he was more than emotionally damaged. Suddenly he said, "You too, Santana."

I did as he asked and closed the door behind myself, turning around in the hotel corridor to find the other three looking at me. Rachel spoke first, "I don't care what he says. I'm calling the police. You agree with me right, Puck…Santana?"

"Totally," Puck said in a hushed voice. "You all know why he's saying no to the cops, don't you? It's obvious."

"Why?" Rachel breathed.

"'Cause he's wrapped up in all sorts of illegal activity himself and if the cops come sniffing _he's_ going down as well. Just look at the guy, he's clearly on drugs for a start," Puck shrugged, a small smirk on his face as he got to tear down his old enemy. Rachel was nodding quickly—it all made sense! "Why else would he volunteer to deal with Brody himself? He's probably missing his fix with Brody hating him. He wants to get back in his old line of work."

I stared at him, unable to fully comprehend what he was saying. Sebastian on drugs…? It was ridiculous to not want to involve the police…perhaps Puck was right. But he couldn't be, Sebastian seemed like himself again and I'd never noticed anything to suggest he was using. Then a thought occurred to me: he could've easily been lying. He was an 'escort' for God's sake. And I'd just looked past that fact and accepted that he'd stayed on the right tracks and just used it for money—likely story!

When I looked up again my eyes locked with Puck's, who had been looking intently at me, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. "Come on, Lopez. You know I'm right."

"Well, so what if you are. Sebastian might not be an honest man anymore but he's our friend…mine and Santana's, anyway. And he always has been. I'm not letting you turn him over to the police, if that's what will happen when we call them," Kurt said defiantly, glaring at Puck. He'd clearly seen the same look of excitement in Puck that I had. "If he wants to clear things up with Brody himself, we'll let him. We can make him a good man again with a little effort. He can't have buried his morals that deep inside."

I smiled at Kurt, hoping he understood how grateful I was to him for saying the things that I was too afraid and that my brain was in too much of a mess to. He grasped my hand tightly and turned back to stare at Puck.

"Fine then. But whatever crap happens from here, it's on your head."


	10. Deal

_Gah I'm really no good at writing long ones.. _

_Thank you everyone who reads this fic and for the two reviews, one from **Stargazer2000**: thank you for your continued support, your reviews are always so sweet and **Padfootkicksbutt**: thank you for the encouragement, i'm so glad you like it!  
_

_Thank you **sophiedhampir **for favouriting and following; **bunnybabe247** for favouriting; **arashiotp5**, **Padfootkicksbutt** and **grandgirl30 **for following. I love seeing that people are still enjoying the fic and I hope I can start writing longer ones for you haha._

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Deal**

Brody sat agitated in the back seat of one of his gangs signature cars, winding the hectic New York roads with ease no other vehicles could get. When people saw these cars they knew who was in them and how to treat them: with the utmost respect.

In his grasp he held his phone which he twisted and turned, periodically lighting up the screen to see if he'd missed any messages or calls from Rachel. When he'd arrived at his apartment—much later than some of his boys because of how damn far away he was—it didn't take him long to notice the balcony doors weren't locked and obviously Finn had forced her down the fire escape. If Finn was even out of the hospital.

It was this suspicion that lead Brody to be sat in his sleek black car on his way to the hospital. He had to see if Finn was still in there and, if he wasn't, when he'd checked out. Long enough to kidnap his gorgeous girlfriend?

As he'd managed to negotiate the traffic with much more ease in this direction, he got out of his car not long after he'd left the apartment and was on the sidewalk beside the hospital. He slammed the door shut behind him and jogged inside the building, pushing to the front of the queue at the main desk.

The person before him shuffled out of the way and Brody stepped forwards, turning on a flirtatious smile for the brunette on the desk. She looked up boredly, "What can I do for you?"

"Would you be able to tell me when a Finn Hudson checked out?" he asked her in a deep and seductive voice. She raised her eyebrows.

"I'm afraid we can't give out that sort of information," she replied and her eyes begin to drift to the person who was lurking behind him in the queue.

He shook his head quickly. "When did Finn Hudson check out," he repeated, pulling a police badge out from his pocket and letting her see it.

She rolled her eyes and typed on her keyboard, eyes flickering across the computer screen. "He left at four thirty-two."

Damnit, it was about twenty to five; he'd just missed Finn. "Thanks," Brody said and stepped out of the queue, quickly unlocking his phone and finding the call he'd received from Rachel. She'd called around half three. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, mind racing. Why would Rachel pretend that Finn was trying to kidnap her and then check him out of the hospital—assuming it was her who did it, who else would? It couldn't be so that she could get him out of the hospital because Brody wasn't stopping her doing that…

It must have been a diversion. And Brody knew just what for. "No, no, no," he grumbled under his breath as he stormed out of the hospital and got back into the car that was waiting for him on the curb.

* * *

After they left the room, Sebastian lay slumped on the bed listening to their voices in the hallway. He guessed they thought they were being quiet so he wouldn't hear them but through the thin hotel walls he could hear almost every word that was said. And Puck was out there proving him right: he'd never do anything for Sebastian that he didn't think he'd manage to have some personal gain from.

What he was surprised by was how Kurt stood up for him. Yeah, they'd been friends…of a sort but he'd never expected him to have his back against all his friends wanting to call the police. Surely it was the logical thing for people who had no experience with Brody Weston to do.

So, from his eavesdropping he knew Rachel and Puck weren't with him and Kurt was. The only person left who he didn't have a clue about was Santana. She'd said nothing. He knew she was taunting him with the idea of being with her but whether it was genuine or not, he didn't know. They had enough history that it could be out of spite—particularly with Puck on the scene. But she could've been telling the truth.

He groaned under his breath and tried to shake the thoughts from his mind. He needed to focus on saving them all from Brody, let them get back to their normal college lives and he knew the only way to do that…

"Fine then. But whatever crap happens from here, it's on your head," he heard Puck snap and there was a moment of silence following his words. He could almost imagine Kurt's innocent face looking up at him. He was the kind of person that even when he was judging you he still looked like an angel.

"Whatever, we have to go get Finn out of that hospital. Brody's going to visit at some point," Santana suddenly woke up and joined the conversation just as Sebastian was beginning to wonder if she'd already left the corridor. A series of footsteps began thudding down the corridor away from the hotel room and Sebastian lay still for a second. At least he knew Santana was a smart girl and would be able to handle herself a little better than the others if something happened to him.

Cautiously, he used his hands to push himself into a sitting position and shifted his weight to his feet, lifting his body until he was stood on his own two feet. He wondered if it felt weird because he was injured or just because he'd been in the same sitting position for far too long. Surely whatever Brody had done to knock him out had left him with at least a few problems.

He put a foot forwards, leant onto it and then the other, managing to walk just fine. Perfect. With the assurance that he'd be able to get there, Sebastian picked up the second hotel key card and left the room, deciding it was probably better to take the elevator than the stairs even if he was managing to walk OK…perhaps with a little discomfort.

The elevator counted down the floors without pausing to pick up any more passengers and deposited him into the lobby. He looked around himself quickly when he stepped into the huge foyer, just in case the others were still lingering in there but it was mostly empty and so he pushed himself, testing how fast he could walk.

He found himself a cab and took it down the few streets that Santana and Puck led him through—he wasn't going to attempt walking that far, even if it wasn't far for a healthy person—until he was outside Sisters. He walked down the alley beside it and noted its emptiness. The 'boys' must've still been buzzing around the apartment and calming Brody's fury. Perhaps this wasn't the best mood to confront Brody in…

But it had to be done. There was no other way to keep the others safe.

He winced as he began climbing the numerous steps of the rundown factory that Brody had held him hostage in, which he guessed was some kind of headquarters for his gang but that was just an assumption as Sebastian was never actually part of the gang.

Finally, he reached the floor where he could see through an archway—well, really it was a doorway but was just a gaping hole as the door was missing from its hinges—the room that he'd been kept in for those endless days. Wood was still scattered across the floor from the chair that he'd been forced to sit in which had been broken beneath him.

He stepped into the room and looked around, half expecting Brody and his 'boys' to jump out of nowhere but all that surprised him was a huge mass of glass lying across the floor beneath the hole that used to be a window. Bits of it were crunched to tiny crystals and Sebastian realised that must have been how Santana and Puck got in. He wondered which of them broke the window.

He went over to the window on the other side of the room and peered out of it, glancing at the pub before eyeing the alleyway again.

* * *

Finally, Sebastian saw the parade of cars driving past the entry to the alleyway. He wondered where they stored the cars because there was clearly no parking around this place. There must be an empty street somewhere where they parked them.

It was only a few minutes before at least ten giant men reappeared and turned down the gap between the bar and the building next to it. He clenched his jaw at the sight of their muscles bursting out their clothes—though some were only wearing vests and shorts, presumably to show off the muscles. He hoped Brody wasn't too excited to see him when he had all these guys. Sebastian might be out another few hours.

They bounced as they walked, as if one of them was counting so they were all stepping with the same foot at the same time so they bobbed along with each other. It was like they were trying to be part of a movie scene. Right in the middle of them, Brody walked a pace ahead of the others, clearly the leader.

Sebastian stood back from the window so they couldn't see him and went to stand within the shattered mess of what used to be his chair, just where Brody had left him.

He heard them clunking noisily up the stairs, moving quickly and angrily. Brody must've already been to the hospital. Sebastian hoped the others had beaten him to it so Finn was at least still in a reasonable condition. He slipped his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. 16:54.

Voices were now on his level. Sebastian took a deep breath and held it. Brody walked into the room and stopped still. "I was half expecting you to be gone, Smythe."

"Don't worry, I left. I've come back for you," Sebastian said through gritted teeth.

"Always my best bro. You realised you were all better off this way?" he said with a tight smile. He knew who had the ball in their court—who always did. Brody ran this game. At least he was partly telling the truth…they weren't _all _better off but most of them were. "So, you want to work for me again?"

"I have some conditions," Sebastian said. Brody nodded to himself and slowly walked further into the room. As he came a little closer the bulky guys followed him in, always staying the same distance behind him.

"Of course you do. Go ahead; I'm sure we can come to an agreement. You're a great asset to the team, Sebastian," Brody smiled and folded his arms across his chest.

"Firstly, you leave all of the others alone," Sebastian began. Brody smiled knowingly, "And that includes Rachel. Leave her and Finn to each other, stop getting Santana, Rachel and Kurt to do your stupid illegal deals. Just keep away from them. OK?"

"Most certainly!" Brody beamed. "Anything else?"

"I've got a limit to what I'll do this time. I can cover for you again—but only things that are slightly incriminating."

"Right, buddy. But you understand if we lower the rank of illegal things you deal with we up the…'escorting' demands," Brody reminded him, a smirk playing about his lips. He'd stopped walking again and now there were three guys in the room with them. Sebastian glanced at them and reminded himself not to let his anger get the better of him. He was trying to keep himself alive here, as well as the others.

"I think you should let me carry on just having people pay for dates. I'm not being a prostitute," Sebastian glared at Brody, their eyes locked intently on each other.

"Here's what we'll do: I'll put you down for a limit of five 'pays for pleasure' and we'll leave it at that, OK? That way you're mostly an escort," Brody said finally. Sebastian deliberated for a second.

"Right fine. But if I do that I'm not living with you."

"I never thought you would. _Bro_."


	11. Back to Normal

_Wow I've left this a long time, I'm so sorry! But thank you to **flaviecoteroy **who favourited in the meantime and thank you **Stargazer2000 **for the review._

_I just thought I'd let you guys know that this story is coming to its end.. its probably only got one or two more chapters left in it. So thanks everyone who has stuck with it and if you want to hear more from me or anything, I have another fanfic at the moment called Better Forgotten if you want to check it out (also Glee-Quinntana). But this isn't quite the end, so enjoy!_

_Alsoo, I hope its alright with everyone that I plan to continue Finn's role in this. I know he's a bit of a touchy subject with the fandom but tbh I think Cory would rather us remember and honour him in his memory. Plus, for his small role in this, Finn's a nice guy so I don't see what the problem is.. sorry if you find it inappropriate. _

* * *

**Rock Steady**

**Back to Normal**

We arrived at the hospital at around half four after Rachel forced us to run practically the whole way because she was so paranoid Brody would already be there. Screw the logic that Brody had to drive there from his apartment, according to Rachel he teleports. So we arrived at the main desk in the hospital breathing heavily. I smirked and pointed at the small sweat patches under Kurt's armpits and he batted me away, "Sorry I'm not a _dancer_."

I glared at him, always mocking me that I'm not delicate enough for any form of dancing besides street dancing and cheerleading (and not cheery enough to be a cheerleader). Rachel led the way through the corridors—which all looked _exactly _the same—as she knew them perfectly well by now having visited Finn all the time. I only recognised the room that I'd been put in along with Finn once we were finally inside it but someone else was occupying the bed they'd put me in.

There was a nurse hovering over Finn, smiling gently at him and saying something. Rachel glared at her and sauntered over, "Hello. I was wondering if Finn's ready to leave."

His face lit up at the thought and he turned hopeful eyes on the nurse. She looked at him and bit her lip, "We were hoping he could spend a few more days with us…"

"Yeah…?" Finn prompted, sensing there was more. She gave him a fond smile that Rachel didn't take too well, ever the jealous monster.

"OK, fine. You'll be alright if you leave today," she nodded and began fussing around him, filling in some information on a sheet and passing him some clothes. "Change into these before you go."

He nodded and disappeared into the bathroom to get changed. There was silence in the room while Rachel stonily watched the nurse arranging his departure and making up the bed again. Finn reappeared in the clothes she'd given him, the jeans bunched up around the knee because they wouldn't fit over the massive cast. "Will I be able to walk with this?"

"You can probably hobble back and forth to the kitchen to get biscuits," the nurse joked, "But no, we've got a wheelchair for you. Your bones not healed yet. But your sling can come off your arm soon, that wasn't injured too badly. You'll need to visit next Wednesday at 11:30, OK?"

"Wednesday, 11:30. Right, thanks," he smiled at her as another nurse brought in a wheelchair which he sat down on, "Bye!"

Rachel hurried over and began wheeling him out of the room.

* * *

The wheelchair whooshed over the comfy hotel carpet as Rachel pushed Finn to our room. We'd had to book another two rooms so that two people were sharing one between them but we were all along the same corridor. Rachel stopped outside one of the new rooms and let her and Finn inside, her smile almost too wide for her face. She was absolutely made up that Brody hadn't beaten us to the hospital.

"So…," Puck said when they disappeared, "I'm not rooming with Smythe."

"Let's wait until he's with us before we decide whose going where," I snapped at him and pulled the key card from his hand, opening the room that we'd left Sebastian in.

We entered and Puck hurried in, flopping noisily onto the armchair and letting out a satisfied sigh. I followed after Kurt and could finally see the empty bed… "He's gone!"

"I told you: missing his drugs. He's probably with Brody right now making some deal," Puck shrugged and smiled to himself, completely at ease in his chair. Kurt shook his head.

"He's not on drugs," was all Kurt said as he sank down onto the bed that we'd left Sebastian lying on. He closed his eyes and I could practically see his brain working, trying to work out any other reason Sebastian would want to leave—perhaps at a time he thought he'd get away with going unnoticed as well. "We're just going to have to wait for him to come back and tell us himself where he's gone."

* * *

I tried to avoid checking my phone for messages and also to see what time it was and work out how long Sebastian had been gone because I didn't want to seem needy…but it was worrying having him out on the streets alone in his condition. He could hardly walk or form intelligent sentences when we'd been with him and now he was out alone with Brody, or at least some of his gang friends, in whatever mad state today's events had left him.

He didn't have the best temper and Rachel, Finn and Sebastian were all off his radar. I hated Sebastian for making me feel like this. He always managed to bring out ridiculous emotions in me. Puck sank down onto the bed next to me and put a hand on top of mine, "It's OK, Santana. He's going to be fine. Even if he is a druggy. They're usually the most streetwise people…"

"Shut up, Puckerman," I muttered at him and turned my face away, trying to ignore his heavy hand resting on top of mine. He squeezed it tightly and put a finger beneath my chin, tilting my face to look into my eyes.

"I'm not trying to be mean. He truly will be OK and I'm going to help you all with this Brody kid so your lives can get back to normal," he said, smoothing his thumb over my palm like he used to in high school.

I shook my head and opened my mouth to say something when there was a click of the hotel door and it swung inwards, revealing Sebastian stood in the doorway. I rose to my feet and stared at him, "You're walking? You could hardly speak properly!"

"Guess I'm a fast healer," he shrugged smugly and walked into the room, shutting the door noisily behind him. Puck slowly stood up behind me, so close I could feel his chest against my arm. "What are you guys gonna do, ground me?"

"Where were you, dude?" Puck asked for me.

"I went to the shops to get some paracetamol. I told you Berry was giving me a headache," he shrugged and pulled a packet of them out of the bag in his hands. I heard Kurt laughing under his breath from behind us. Clearly he believed it was much as I did.

"Sure you were, Sebastian. Did you get any other drugs while you were at it?" I found myself hissing at him. He raised an eyebrow, taken aback by my outburst.

"Drugs…where did you get that from?" Sebastian laughed. I looked closely at his face. I couldn't tell if he looked guilty because he _was _on drugs or because we knew paracetamol wasn't the reason for his outing.

"So." Kurt broke the tense silence, "We've bought another two rooms for the night. I think we should room together, Sebastian."

"Good idea. I won't sleep a wink with this one on at me," Sebastian said with a glance at me before he went over to Kurt and offered him a high five. "But you don't need to worry about finding a place to stay for the next few weeks. We can go back to the apartment, it's OK."

* * *

"Come on, San," Puck looked over at me sat on the bed with my arms firmly crossed over my chest. "You know he's lying. He always lies. It's time to forget about him."

I glared at him and continued my silence. Much as I wanted to believe Sebastian was innocent—he'd just lulled me back into thinking he was a decent guy—Puck's argument was definitely believable. I sighed, "Innocent until proven guilty."

"You know I'm a better guy and that's not saying much. He's a loser," Puck looked happy to be saying so.

"Whatever, you got all of your crap ready? We have to go check out," I snapped and slid off the bed, looking around the empty room. Since it had been a last minute visit we didn't really have anything with us to bring.

"Another thing: why do you think we're able to go back to the apartment so quickly? He _obviously _met with Brody or something," Puck reminded me, blocking my path from leaving the room to hound me with more Sebastian-hating theories.

"Honestly, Puck, I don't care. I know you have your own vendetta against him…but I don't care. I'm tired and am I'm going home," I hissed and pushed him out of the way, storming out of the room and into the corridor, almost walking straight into Sebastian.

"Woah there, slow down, J Lo," Sebastian held his hands up with an amused expression. I breathed deeply. From one idiot to the other. "Let's get going."

* * *

"OK, so how's this going to work? I'm not sharing a sofa with this Neanderthal," Sebastian shot Puck a sideways glance, just daring him to rise to the jibe.

"Well neither of you losers are coming in any of our beds," I replied for the team. Rachel gave a firm nod.

"No, it's OK. My bed has another one pull out from underneath it. Sebastian, you can sleep on that," Kurt offered and gestured for Sebastian to follow him and the two disappeared into his room. Since when had those two been such close buddies?

The rest of the week continued almost…_normally_. At first it felt like the next day something bad was going to happen because we'd been lulled into a false sense of security but when Friday came around, I was actually happy to be leaving my dance class at NYADA. And not just because the teacher's a complete drag.

Tonight Sebastian was making dinner—the two boys took it in turns as payment for our hospitality—and he was a very good chef…I fumbled with my key at the door to our apartment; it no longer felt futile locking the door. I rolled it open and stepped inside, expecting to see Sebastian on the sofa but it was empty. I frowned.

Was I really the only one home? I walked further into the room and listened at Rachel's door—but if Rachel was in, you knew. She just loved belting musical crap at the top of her lungs. Next I tried Kurt's and just as I was about to move away, I heard something…

I hovered for a minute, wondering if Kurt still wanted help with the choreography for a number he was doing at college. He'd asked me about it the day before. I knocked and pushed open the door, an involuntary yelp escaping my throat.

"Oh, my God," the blonde girl on the bed squealed when her eyes locked on mine. She slid out from beneath Sebastian and hurried around the room in a whirl, apparently looking for the clothes that were thrown everywhere.

Sebastian rolled over and looked guiltily across at my horrified expression. It took a minute for my anger to fully bubble to the surface. I stepped calmly into the room. "Which of you is the whore here?"

The girl's eyes were huge, settling hopefully on the door that I was blocking.

"Do you think it's acceptable to bring your girls back here, Sebastian?" I snarled at him, "Kurt let you sleep in his room, for God's sake. And look how you repay him! Puck was right, you're absolute trash."

"Puck?" Sebastian asked.

"Don't give me that after you've just been in bed with some girl! One who you were paid to be in bed with, right?" I hissed at him, looming over the bed now. I heard the girl behind me shuffling quietly across the room for the door. I turned around and glared at her, "You think you can run away this easily? No. What kind of _desperate _little girl needs to pay to get a guy to look at her?"

She ran out of the room and I was about to rush after her when I felt Sebastian's arms lock around me and hold me in place. "Calm down, Santana."

"Calm down?" I shrieked, "Get your dirty freaking arms off me!"

At my words he removed his grasp and held his arms up in surrender, "I can explain, OK?"

"No you can't. You always claim you can and I go on believing you. Not this time, Sebastian. It's Kurt's call if he lets you carry on living in this apartment but from now on, to me, you don't exist," I spat, "You're dead to me."


End file.
